Further information can be found here
Children’s Continuing Care
Some children and young people under the age of 18 may have very complex health needs. These may be the result of congenital conditions, long-term or life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, disability, or the after-effects of serious illness or injury. Their needs may be so complex, that they cannot be met by the services which are routinely available from GP practices, hospitals or in the community.
Continuing care is not needed by children or young people whose needs can be met appropriately through existing universal or specialist services through a case management approach.
A children and young people’s health assessor and nurse specialist will assess a child’s eligibility for CCC funding and will arrange a bespoke package of care to meet the complex health needs of the child.
Where a child or young person is eligible for CCC they are able to receive their bespoke package of care via a personal health budget (PHB), commissioned complex health care provider and through jointly commissioned packages with Local Authorities.
Continuing care should be part of a wider package of care, agreed and delivered in collaboration between health, education and social care.
The functions of the Children’s Continuing Care team are to implement:
- Initial screening of referrals
- Coordinate assessment and information gathering
- Coordinate and chair Decision Support Tool (DST) meeting
- Complete DST paperwork to determine eligibility or not and to feedback to referrer and family
- Promote PHB’s and facilitate as required (specific to locality area)
- Support the family to secure a package of care to meet the child’s assessed needs
- Present proposed package in a forum to seek funding approval by the LA and ICB
- Review new packages of care after 3 months
- Review eligibility for CCC annually
- Monitor and alter a care package if appropriate and to re -present in the forum for agreement
- Provide Fast Track support for Children and Young People at the end of their lives and to implement a supportive package
This service is provided by NHS North of England Commissioning Support Unit (NECS) on behalf of NHS North East & North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB).
Further details can be found by emailing necsu.childrenscontinuingcare@nhs.net
More detailed information can be found on the National Framework at:
Children and young people’s continuing care national framework – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Continuing Health Care
Continuing Healthcare is a package of care funded by the NHS where an individual’s care is fully funded by the health service regardless of their wealth or savings. Continuing Healthcare may be available to you if your main requirement for care is down to health related problems. It can be received in hospital, a nursing home or at the individual’s home. This is often described as ‘fully funded care’.
NHS Continuing Healthcare is for people aged over 18. Young People may receive a “continuing care package” if they have needs arising from disability, accident or illness that can’t be met by existing universal or specialist services alone.
To be eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare, you must be assessed by a team of healthcare professionals (a multi-disciplinary team). The team will look at all your care need and relate them to:
- what help you need
- how complex your needs are
- how intense your needs can be
- how unpredictable they are, including any risks to your health if the right care isn’t provided at the right time
Eligibility for NHS Continuing Healthcare depends on assessed needs, and not on any particular diagnosis or condition. If needs change then eligibility for NHS Continuing Healthcare may change.
In Hartlepool assessments and support for CCC/CHC (all age continuing care) is delivered by North East and Cumbria ICB.
More detailed information can be found at:
https://www.hartlepoolandstocktonccg.nhs.uk/your-health/continuing-healthcare
and/or
Personal Health Budgets
A personal health budget is an amount of money provided to support health and wellbeing needs, which is planned and agreed between you (or someone who represents you or, in the case of a child, their families or carers), and your local NHS team. It allows an individual to manage healthcare and support such as treatments, equipment and personal care, in a way that suits individual needs. It works in a similar way to personal budgets, which allow people to manage and pay for their social care needs.
A child or young person up to the age of 18 years old who are in receipt of Children’s Continuing Care (CCC) or a young person over the age of 18 years old who are in receipt of Continuing Healthcare (CHC) have the legal right to a Personal Health Budget (PHB). Children and young people in receipt of an education health and care plan (EHCP) have the option to request a personal health budget for support to meet their health outcomes outlined in their plan, however the ICB can decline this request if existing commissioned services can meet the health needs of the child or young person.
A personal health budget is not new money, it is money that would normally have been spent by the NHS on a person’s care being spent more flexibly to meet their identified needs. The use of personal health budgets is just one way in which the NHS can tailor services and support for people to enable them to have choice, control and flexibility over their care.
For more information on Personal Health Budgets, including eligibility criteria click here.
In Hartlepool this service is provided by NHS North East & North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB).
For more information, please visit the following links:
Personal health budgets | North East and North Cumbria NHS
https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/help-with-health-costs/what-is-a-personal-health-budget
