The short answer
- Find out who is coordinating the dischargeAsk the ward for the discharge coordinator or the hospital social work team by name, and for a direct number. Ask what is being arranged, when it starts and who is paying.
- Nobody should be sent home until it is safeThe national guidance says no person should be discharged until it is safe, and that unpaid carers should be asked whether they are willing and able to provide care afterwards. You are allowed to say that you are not.
- Ask for the free help, and cover the gap alongside itReablement and intermediate care are free for up to six weeks, and a council may meet urgent needs before it has assessed anybody. Neither stops you booking a carer for tomorrow.
- Cover for the first days can be booked todayHourly visits are £18 to £25 an hour on PrimeCarers with our fee included, and a carer who sleeps in the house is from £130 a night. You compare profiles and rates and speak to the carer yourself.
Figures are what families pay on PrimeCarers, with our fee included. Agencies charge £28 to £35 for the same visit. Thresholds and benefit figures are the England rates for 2026/27, checked in September 2026.
Start here
What to ask the ward today
A discharge date often arrives without the plan attached. These four questions get you the plan, or tell you there is not one, which changes the rest of your day.
Who is coordinating the discharge
A name and a direct number
Which pathway they are going home on
Pathway 0, 1, 2 or 3
What is being arranged, when it starts and who pays
Ask for it in writing
Medicines, equipment and the discharge summary
Before they leave the ward
Under discharge to assess, the full assessment of longer term needs is meant to happen once somebody is home rather than on the ward, so the plan can sound thinner than you expected. That is the system working as designed, and it is why the first days at home are the gap families fall into. Hospital discharge explained sets out the pathways, and the hospital discharge and community support guidance is the document the ward works from.
The next 24 hours
What happens between now and the first night at home
Two things run at once: what the hospital and the council are responsible for, and what you can put in place yourself. Side by side, it is clearer which half of tomorrow is yours.
This afternoon
Ask the ward or the council
Ask who is coordinating the discharge and get a direct number. Ask which pathway your relative is going home on, what care is being arranged, when the first visit is, and whether there is a charge. If nothing is being arranged, ask them to say that plainly.
What you can put in place yourself
Ring the council’s adult social care team, say the discharge is tomorrow and there is no care at home, and ask for an urgent needs assessment. Write down the name of whoever you speak to.
This evening
Ask the ward or the council
Ask the ward to confirm the medicines going home, the equipment that has been ordered, and whether it has been delivered or only referred. A bed that arrives next week is not there for tomorrow night.
What you can put in place yourself
Look at carers near your relative’s home and message two or three about the first days. Ask for a phone call this evening rather than judging anybody from a profile, and say exactly which hours you need covering.
Tomorrow morning
Ask the ward or the council
Ask for the discharge summary, the medicines to take home and a written note of what has been arranged and by whom. Ask what the plan is if your relative cannot manage once they are home.
What you can put in place yourself
Confirm the first visit with the carer you have agreed with and tell them the time your relative is expected back. Give them the key arrangements, the medicines and your number.
Getting home
Ask the ward or the council
Ask when transport is booked for and whether somebody is going into the house with your relative. Transport times move, so ask to be rung when your relative leaves the ward.
What you can put in place yourself
Heating on, food in, the bed made on a floor they can reach, a phone within arm’s length of the chair. If you cannot be there, ask the carer to be there for the arrival rather than an hour later.
The first evening
Ask the ward or the council
Ask when the reablement or community team will first visit and get the day and time before you leave the ward. Ask who to ring if they do not turn up.
What you can put in place yourself
An evening visit covers the medicines, a meal and getting to bed safely, which is the part of the first day families most often find they cannot do from an hour away.
The first night
Ask the ward or the council
Out of hours the GP service and NHS 111 cover the night, and councils run an emergency duty team. Ask the ward for both numbers before you go.
What you can put in place yourself
If leaving them alone overnight is the thing you are dreading, a carer can stay in the house for the first few nights and you can stop once the days are steadier.
None of that needs a decision about long-term care, which families try to settle in a single evening and cannot. Booking somebody for a week buys time to have that conversation once your relative is home. What to arrange before discharge day goes through the house itself: keys, equipment, medicines, food and the first night.
Free help to ask for
The free help to ask for, and how quickly it moves
Ask for all of it today. These routes run at different speeds, and asking for one does not stop you booking a carer meanwhile.
Routes worth asking for today, and what each one gives you
| Who it is for | What it costs | How to ask | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reablement or intermediate care | Somebody who needs short-term help to get back on their feet after a hospital stay | Free, for as long as it is needed and usually for a maximum of six weeks | Ask the ward or the hospital social work team whether your relative has been referred |
| An urgent care needs assessment | Anyone whose needs cannot wait for the usual timescale | Free. Care that follows is means tested: savings above £23,250 are paid for in full, savings below £14,250 are disregarded | Ring the council's adult social care team and use the word urgent. Under the Care Act a council may meet urgent needs before it has carried out either assessment |
| Urgent community response | Somebody already at home whose health or care needs suddenly get worse | NHS, free | Ask the GP, the district nurses or the discharge team to refer. Teams run at least 8am to 8pm every day and aim to reach people within two hours |
| NHS continuing healthcare | Somebody whose needs are mainly health needs rather than social care needs | Free and not means tested where it applies | Ask the hospital doctor or nurse to consider it before discharge. Where health is declining quickly there is a fast track route, meant to put support in place within about 48 hours |
| Equipment and small adaptations | Somebody who cannot get into bed or onto the toilet safely as things stand | Free where an assessment says they are needed | Ask for an occupational therapist to look before discharge, and ask what has been delivered rather than ordered |
| Booking a carer yourself | Any family that needs somebody there tomorrow while the rest is sorted out | £18 to £25 an hour on PrimeCarers, our fee included | Search carers near the house and speak to the ones free this week |
Reablement or intermediate care
- Who it is for
- Somebody who needs short-term help to get back on their feet after a hospital stay
- What it costs
- Free, for as long as it is needed and usually for a maximum of six weeks
- How to ask
- Ask the ward or the hospital social work team whether your relative has been referred
An urgent care needs assessment
- Who it is for
- Anyone whose needs cannot wait for the usual timescale
- What it costs
- Free. Care that follows is means tested: savings above £23,250 are paid for in full, savings below £14,250 are disregarded
- How to ask
- Ring the council's adult social care team and use the word urgent. Under the Care Act a council may meet urgent needs before it has carried out either assessment
Urgent community response
- Who it is for
- Somebody already at home whose health or care needs suddenly get worse
- What it costs
- NHS, free
- How to ask
- Ask the GP, the district nurses or the discharge team to refer. Teams run at least 8am to 8pm every day and aim to reach people within two hours
NHS continuing healthcare
- Who it is for
- Somebody whose needs are mainly health needs rather than social care needs
- What it costs
- Free and not means tested where it applies
- How to ask
- Ask the hospital doctor or nurse to consider it before discharge. Where health is declining quickly there is a fast track route, meant to put support in place within about 48 hours
Equipment and small adaptations
- Who it is for
- Somebody who cannot get into bed or onto the toilet safely as things stand
- What it costs
- Free where an assessment says they are needed
- How to ask
- Ask for an occupational therapist to look before discharge, and ask what has been delivered rather than ordered
Booking a carer yourself
- Who it is for
- Any family that needs somebody there tomorrow while the rest is sorted out
- What it costs
- £18 to £25 an hour on PrimeCarers, our fee included
- How to ask
- Search carers near the house and speak to the ones free this week
Sources: NHS reablement and intermediate care, Care Act 2014 section 19(3), NHS England urgent community response, NHS continuing healthcare and the 2026 to 2027 charging circular. Capital limits are for England.
A needs assessment is free and anyone can ask for one, whatever their savings, so ask even if your relative will be paying for their own care. Reablement explains what the free six weeks covers, local authority funding covers the means test, and what to do while you wait covers rapid response teams and the council's emergency duty team. In some areas the British Red Cross runs short-term support for people coming out of hospital, so ask what runs in your relative's area.
Booking cover yourself
Booking a carer for the first days at home
This is the part you control, and it closes the gap between the front door tomorrow and whatever the council arranges next week.
- 1
Write down the hours you need, not the whole plan
10 minutesThe morning, the evening, the medicines, the meals, and whether anyone can be there when transport arrives. Two visits a day for a week is a reasonable opening position. - 2
Look at carers near the house
Free to searchSearch by postcode and read the profiles: rates, experience, availability and reviews. Every carer on PrimeCarers has had an identity check, a right to work check and an enhanced DBS check monitored on the Update Service, and has been interviewed online before their profile appears. They are insured while they work. How carers are checked sets out what each covers. - 3
Ring two or three this evening
TonightSay what has happened, when the discharge is, and what the first days involve. Ask what they have done after a hospital stay. We do not check qualifications or training, so ask the carer about anything specific, such as a hoist or dementia, and ask to see certificates. - 4
Book the first days, then adjust
Before tomorrowAgree the visits, the rate and the start time directly with the carer, under the contract on the platform. You are covering the first days while the assessment and the equipment catch up.
If ringing round is more than you can manage today, the form on the emergency care page goes to our team, who ring back within 30 minutes and start calling carers near you. It costs nothing to ask and nothing if nobody is free; a one-off £40 fee applies only if you go ahead with a carer we introduce you to. You speak to the carer and you decide. Searching yourself on find a carer carries no fee.
What it costs
What the first week costs, and what happens if the date moves
Short-term cover is priced like any other care at home.
£18–£25
An hour on PrimeCarers, fee included
About £20 an hour is typical. Agencies charge £28 to £35 for the same visit.
£252–£350
A first week of two visits a day
That is 14 hours. The same week through an agency is £392 to £490.
£130–£145
A night with a carer sleeping in the house
For the first few nights if being alone at night is the worry.
£1,050+
A week for a live-in carer
Worth pricing if help is needed through the day as well as the night.
PrimeCarers rates, September 2026, with our fee included.
Bank holidays are charged at one and a half times the carer's normal rate and Christmas Day at twice the rate, which matters if the discharge falls near one. Travel time and mileage are charged only where you and the carer agree it in advance in writing. The hourly cost of care at home sets out the rest.
Attendance Allowance is worth claiming for somebody over State Pension age who needs help with personal care. It is not means tested, and in 2026/27 it is paid at £76.70 or £114.60 a week depending on whether help is needed by day, or by day and night. Claims take time, so it is money towards the months after. Funding care after a hospital stay covers the rest.
If tomorrow is too soon
If you do not think tomorrow is safe
Families are often told that a bed is needed and everything can be sorted out at home. Where that is not right, say so today, to the person coordinating the discharge, and in writing.
What helps
- Say whether you are willing and able to provide care at home, and for how many hours a day
- Name the thing that is not safe: the stairs, the nights, the medicines, nobody in the house until Thursday
- Ask for the discharge plan in writing, with times and the name of whoever provides each part
- Ask whether an occupational therapist has seen your relative
- Put your concern in a message to the discharge coordinator, so there is a record of the date
What makes it harder
- Agreeing on the phone that you will manage somehow when you know you cannot
- Waiting for the council to ring back before you arrange anything at all
- Assuming equipment that has been ordered will be at the house by tomorrow
- Arguing with the ward nurse rather than the person coordinating the discharge
The national guidance is explicit that no person should be discharged until it is safe, and that unpaid carers should be consulted on whether they are willing and able to provide care after discharge. Families often assume the only question is whether the patient is well enough. If the plan depends on you being there, you are allowed to say what you can and cannot do.
Questions
Questions families ask the day before a discharge
The national discharge guidance says that no person should be discharged until it is safe to do so, and that unpaid carers should be consulted on whether they are willing and able to provide care afterwards. Under discharge to assess, the full assessment of longer term needs happens once somebody is home rather than on the ward, so a discharge can go ahead with less arranged than you expected. Ask what is being put in place, when it starts and who provides it, in writing.
Yes. The guidance expects unpaid carers to be asked whether they are willing and able to provide care, and the answer may be that you work, live two hours away, or cannot manage the lifting. Say it to the discharge coordinator, say how many hours a day you can cover, and put it in a message so there is a record.
Reablement and intermediate care are free, for as long as they are needed and usually for a maximum of six weeks. After that, care at home is means tested in England: savings above £23,250 mean paying in full, and savings below £14,250 are disregarded, though income is still counted. NHS continuing healthcare is free where needs are mainly health needs. Local authority funding explains the means test.
Often the next day, and sometimes the same evening. Fewer carers are free at short notice, so there is less choice than if you had a fortnight, and the carer who covers the first days is not always the one who carries on. Hourly visits are £18 to £25 an hour on PrimeCarers with our fee included, and there is no surcharge for a short-notice booking. Search carers near you.
Tell the carer as soon as you know. The contract between you and the carer says a visit cancelled by the client is payable in full, with exceptions for unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason the carer agrees to. A relative still on the ward is the hospitalisation exception, so explain it in writing. Either side can end an hourly arrangement with 48 hours' notice. PrimeCarers charges nothing of its own for a cancellation and does not decide the outcome.
No. You can book a carer at any point, whether or not the council has been involved. Ask for the assessment anyway: it is free, anyone can ask for one whatever their savings, and it opens the door to funding and equipment. Under section 19(3) of the Care Act a council may also meet needs that appear urgent before it has carried out a needs assessment or a financial assessment.
It depends on what you are worried about. If the risk is getting to the toilet in the dark, confusion after an anaesthetic, or a fall with nobody in the house, a carer who sleeps in the house is £130 to £145 a night, and you can stop once the days settle. If help is needed through the day as well, price a live-in carer from £1,050 a week against visits and nights. Short-term night care after hospital compares the two.