Companies

Generally speaking, if a person needing care has less than £23,250 of savings then their local council will contribute, at least in part, to the cost of care.

The lower the total amount of savings the greater the contribution from the council will be. Following a needs assessment from the council, which everyone is entitled to, the next step is a financial assessment about which you can find further information on the nhs website.

Even if your care is funded by the council, many people are entitled to a ‘personal health budget’ or ‘direct payment’ which gives them freedom to choose the type of care (including care company) they would like. Some councils, however, have contracts with specific care companies to provide social care for residents within their area who are council-funded. For more information the funding you are eligible to receive you should definitely check with your local council as the exact rules vary between different regions.

At the moment, CareCompare can be used by anyone who has a free choice of care provider, that is anyone who is self-funding or has a personal budget.

CareCompare currently covers the county of Essex only. We hope to expand our coverage very soon, so please keep an eye out for any announcements!

The security of the information we hold about you is a matter we take extremely seriously. When you submit a care request on CareCompare, the care companies only receive the request information and your postcode and not your name or contact details unless you decide to connect with them. All care companies are subject to a data sharing agreement, and the way we handle and store data is compliant with data protection leglislation including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit. You can find more information about exactly how we use your information in our privacy notice here.

We work with a variety of local and national care companies. All care companies in England are regulated and inspected by the Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator of health and social care services. For more information about how the CQC operates please see our blog post.

CareCompare only works with care companies that are rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC.

After submitting a care request, the following steps take place:

1. The information you provide is sent to the care companies who will take a look and reply back with offers of care if they are able to meet your needs.
2. Each time an offer comes through, you will receive an email alert (please check your junk/spam mail folder regularly in case it is sent there). When you then log in to CareCompare, you will be able to see information about the care companies who have made offers.
3. For each offer you can either decline it or choose to connect. Clicking ‘Connect’ simply means that your contact information is shared with that company and they will be in touch with you to discuss how you would like to proceed.
4. If you are not sure, or want more time to think things through, just click on the button that says you’re not sure yet and you can go back to the offers at a later time.

No. When you make a request for care on CareCompare and receive offers back from the care companies, you are under no obligation to accept these offers.

If you decide to connect with a company and click the ‘connect’ button, the companies you connect with will receive your email address and contact phone number so they can get in touch, and you will also receive their email address and number. You can then have a discussion with the care company to finalise and book the care package you need.

At the moment we only cover care in your own home (domiciliary care) providers, and not nursing homes or other residential care settings.