Guides to CHC funding and care fees
These guides explain NHS Continuing Healthcare and care fees in England in plain English. Start with the CHC funding guide, then pick the stage you're at: the Checklist, the full assessment, a refusal, or fees you've already paid.
Understanding CHC funding
Start here if CHC is new to you. These CHC guides explain what the funding is, who it's for and the test the NHS uses to decide.
CHC funding: who qualifies and how to get it
Start hereThe main guide. What CHC funding pays for, who qualifies, each step from the Checklist to the decision, and what to do if the answer is no.
Read the CHC funding guide
What is NHS Continuing Healthcare?
What CHC stands for, what it pays for, and how it differs from NHS-funded Nursing Care and council funding.
Read what CHC is
Criteria for CHC funding: who qualifies in England
The primary health need test, the four characteristics of need that assessors weigh, and the things that never decide eligibility.
Read the criteria guideHow we write these guides
We check each guide against the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care. That's the Department of Health and Social Care's rulebook for England. We also check the official forms and guidance that go with it. Every guide shows the date it was last checked and lists its sources at the end, so you can read the official documents for yourself.
We are not part of the NHS, and the guides give information, not legal advice. You can read how we research, check and update them in our editorial policy.
The Checklist and the assessment
The Checklist decides whether someone gets a full assessment. These help you prepare for it and understand the result.
CHC Checklist: what it is, how it works and how to prepare
The 11 areas of need, the A, B and C scores, the rules for a full assessment and how to get ready.
Read the Checklist guide
Free tools for families
Free tools that help you make sense of CHC paperwork, including a checker that shows what your relative's Checklist scores mean.
See the free toolsIf the answer is no
A refusal of CHC funding can be challenged. The integrated care board (ICB) is the NHS body that decides CHC funding in your area. The first step is local resolution, where the ICB looks again using its own published process. If that doesn't settle it, you can ask NHS England for an Independent Review Panel. Our CHC appeals service explains each stage. A CHC case review gives you our view in writing on whether a challenge looks worth making.
Check the date on the decision letter
Each ICB publishes its own local resolution process and timescales, and the decision letter should explain them. There's no national deadline. Read the letter and the ICB's policy as soon as the decision arrives.
Care fees and fees already paid
How care is paid for in England, and how to ask the NHS to look again at care your family has already paid for.
Who pays for care home fees in England?
The three ways care home fees get paid: by the NHS through CHC, by the council after a means test, or by the person themselves.
Read who pays for care
Retrospective CHC claims: getting past care fees assessed
How to ask the integrated care board to look at care your family has already paid for, including after a death.
Read about past fees claimsGet help with your case
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