MPS: Care homes

Introduction

Increasingly, Devon County Council, NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group and Devon Partnership NHS Trust (the commissioners) will purchase proportionally more care home services for people with highly intensive and complex needs. This will be from residential care homes competent and designed to manage people with complex needs and nursing homes where the person has a requirement for a level of registered nursing that cannot be provided in their own home. This will usually be part of a planned admission, rather than at a time of crisis.

This is because we want to support people’s aspirations to live in or remain in their own homes and where that is no longer possible, to move to accommodation that supports and promotes their independence. For most people, this may not be in a care home setting.

A significant number of placements are purchased privately, particularly for people over 65. Commissioners are not involved in arranging most of these private purchases and consequently cannot, with certainty, predict the needs of people making private arrangements. Commissioners will continue to refine their understanding of the needs and aspirations of people who fund their own care through engagement and research, however, previous engagement with care homeowners in Devon suggests that the range of needs of people in care homes is broadly similar, regardless of how they are funded.

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