Helping you to give your views

• Residential care homes: £651.00

• Residential dementia care: £675.00

• Care homes with nursing: £752.00

Third party payments

Some people want a wider choice of care homes than Bromley Council can offer at its guide rates. If Bromley Council is contributing towards your care costs, you can choose to go into a more expensive home as long as someone else, such as a relative, friend or charity, is willing and able to pay the difference between Bromley Council’s guide rate and your chosen home’s fees. This is called a third party payment or top-up. The person making the additional payment will have a separate legal agreement with Bromley Council and must understand that: • they will need to complete a questionnaire so that Bromley Council can assess whether the third party will be able to afford the top-up payment; • they must be able to keep up the payments or you could be asked to move into a cheaper home; • they must be prepared to meet the cost of future increases in the payment when fees are reviewed and

• Bromley Council reserves the right to terminate the contract if the care home breaches the terms and conditions of the contract. The charging regulations do not allow you to make this additional payment from your own money, except in very limited circumstances. This is because Bromley Council will have already assessed your contribution as the maximum amount you can pay.

Always seek advice

Independent help is available to guide you through your financial options. There may be a number of solutions to retaining your capital whilst paying for your care. Bromley Council encourages everybody to seek unbiased, expert advice from independent financial advisers to help work out how to pay for long-term care.

Independent financial advisers are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and must follow a code of conduct and ethics and take shared responsibility for the suitability of any product they recommend.

Unlike advisers who are tied to particular providers, specialist care-fees advisers can offer advice on products from across the whole market.

You can contact the Money Advice Service for free and impartial money advice on 0800 138 7777 or visit www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk

For a local independent financial adviser, accredited by the Society of Later Life Advisers (SOLLA), call 0333 2020 454 or visit www.

societyoflaterlifeadvisers.co.uk/find-an-adviser

It is important that people who use health and care services feel that they can share their views and give their feedback and comments, both good and bad, about the service that they have received.

You should also feel free to make comments and suggestions about possible improvements to your surroundings and the services provided.

Making a comment or complaint should be easy and should not affect the standard of care that you receive. Health and care services are required under national standards of quality and safety to have a simple and easy to use complaints procedure.

If you are concerned about the health and care you are receiving, speak to the manager of the service about your concerns before taking any further action. The problem may be resolved quite easily once the manager of the service is made aware of it.

If your concerns are not resolved, you may wish to make a formal complaint. This section sets out different ways that people can do this.