People with primary health care needs may qualify for free NHS funded care which is beyond that provided by core NHS services and what social care are able to provide. For adults 18 and over, this is called NHS Continuing Healthcare. For children and young people up to the age of 17, this is called NHS Continuing Care. Both are based on national frameworks, which explain who qualify.

For adults: National framework for NHS continuing healthcare and NHS-funded nursing care

For children and young people: Children and young people’s continuing care national framework. 

You can also find out more about NHS Continuing Healthcare on the NHS website.

There is another type of funding known as ‘Funded Nursing Care’. This is where the NHS pays for care provided by a Registered Nurse to people who live in a care home. The NHS also offers Personal Health Budgets to people who are eligible, and this can help them have more control in finding and commissioning suitable care providers to meet the assessed needs of a family member.

Continuing Healthcare, Continuing Care and Funded Nursing Care (the three are sometimes described as NHS Funded Care) are the responsibility of the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) who must make sure they have processes in place to ensure assessments of residents take place and, where residents meet the eligibility criteria for NHS funded care, such services are commissioned and the needs of the resident are regularly reviewed.

The ICB has the accountability duty in law to make sure these services are provided. There is a contract in place for the Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (MLCSU) to provide the assessment and review process for residents across the former Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) areas in Lancashire and South Cumbria, with the exception of the former Blackpool CCG area where a separate in-house team is in place for NHS Funded Care.

You can contact the Blackpool area team about anything related to NHS Funded Care by emailing c.careteam@nhs.net or calling 01253 951230, and for information about complaints, please visit the patient experience section of this website.

For residents from all other areas of Lancashire and South Cumbria, more information about the NHS

Funded Care services provided by MLCSU and how to contact the team can be found using the links below.