Death of a Person or Carer

Death of a person

If you are notified of a person's death by a carer or family member, you should:

1. offer the condolences of the Local Authority;
2. provide reassurance that any services (including any Direct Payments) and, where applicable, financial contributions will be ceased;
3. provide any information or advice that may be required, or that may be beneficial; and
4. establish any other appropriate support that you may be able to provide.

Information, advice and support could include:

1. listening and allowing space to talk about the person who has died;
2. talking through the impact of the death on their own needs;
3. signposting to or supporting them to access appropriate support or bereavement counselling; or
4. agreeing to notify other professionals or services of the person's death.

Death of a carer

If you are notified of a carer's death by a family member, or the person with care and support needs, you should:

1. offer the condolences of the Local Authority;
2. provide reassurance that any carer's services (including any Direct Payments) and, where applicable, financial contributions will be ceased;
3. provide any information or advice that may be required, or that may be beneficial; and
4. confirm whether alternative care is in place to meet the eligible needs of the person that were being met by the deceased carer.

Death of a person

If you are notified of the person's death by a professional or by a service provider, you should make a record of the death and then consider the most appropriate time and way to contact a carer or family member in order to offer condolences and support.

If the person was resident in a CQC registered care home when they died, the care home must notify the CQC of the death.  

If there are any anticipated financial issues that the provider knows of, they should let you know. For example, if the person has no money for a funeral, no family to arrange this, or no executor for their will when they have assets.

Guidance on financial matters is in Section 12, Resolving Financial Matters below.

Death of a carer

If you are notified of a carer’s death by a professional or by a service provider, you should make a record of the death and then:

1. take steps to establish the impact of the carer's death on the person; and
2. confirm whether the person's eligible care and support needs are being met; and
3. if not, make arrangements to meet their needs.

You must make a record of the person's/carer's death on their electronic file, which should include:

1. the date that the person died;
2. the cause of death, where known;
3. how you were notified.

Unless it was a carer or family member that notified you of the person's death, you should make appropriate contact with them to:

1. offer the condolences of the Local Authority;
2. provide reassurance that any services (including any Direct Payments) and, where applicable, financial contributions have been ceased;
3. provide any information or advice that may be required, or that may be beneficial; and
4. establish any other appropriate support that you may be able to provide.

Information, advice and support could include:

1. listening and allowing space to talk about the person who has died;
2. talking through the impact of the death on their own needs;
3. signposting to or supporting them to access appropriate support or bereavement counselling.
4. agreeing to notify other professionals or services of the person's death.

Appropriate contact is the contact that would likely be most appreciated by the carer, and could be:

1. swift contact;
2. delayed contact;
3. telephone contact;
4. face to face contact;
5. e-mail contact.

If you are unclear about how or when to make contact with a carer, you should seek the support of your line manager.

Where the Local Authority has been providing support to a carer, you should consider time limited monitoring arrangements to ensure that they have been able to access any help that they need.

Unless it was the person with care and support needs (or their representative) that notified you of the carer's death, you should make appropriate contact with them to:

1. offer the condolences of the Local Authority;
2. provide reassurance that any carers services (including any Direct Payments) and, where applicable, financial contributions have been ceased;
3. provide any information or advice that may be required, or that may be beneficial; and
4. confirm whether alternative care is in place to meet the eligible needs of the person that were being met by the deceased carer (see below).

If another informal carer is meeting the eligible needs of the person, and this appears sustainable, you:

1. do not need to take any further action in respect of meeting the eligible needs of the cared for person; but
2. you must offer any new carer an assessment of needs; and
3. you should consider holding a proportionate review in six weeks’ time, or making other monitoring arrangements to ensure that the new care arrangements are working as intended.

If the eligible needs of the person are not being met, are only being met short term, or are being met inappropriately, you must:

1. carry out a full Care and Support Plan review; or
2. carry out a proportionate reassessment; and
3. consider the need to provide alternative interim or urgent support; and
4. consider the need to raise a safeguarding concern.

If a financial assessment has previously been carried out, you must notify the team responsible for managing contributions as soon as possible. This applies even if the financial contribution is zero.

It is their responsibility to make arrangements for any financial contributions taken since the time of death to be repaid to the estate.

If the person/carer was receiving a Direct Payment, you must notify the team responsible for managing Direct Payments as soon as possible after their death.

It is their responsibility to make arrangements for any Direct Payments paid since the time of the person/carer's death to be repaid.

Where Lincolnshire County Council is acting as an appointee and where they have been notified of the death, the Appointee Team will arrange payment of the funeral fees from the person’s account, if the person has sufficient funds in their account.

The Appointee Team will also ensure all accounts are in order, and due money returned to and paid from the account, as appropriate.

If they are contacted, the Appointee Team would advise the notifier to instruct the district council to inform the registrar of the death, if they have not already done so.

Section 46 of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 imposes a duty on district/borough councils to arrange burial or cremation (aka a public health funeral or Pauper Funeral) of any person who has died in their area (in the absence of known or willing relatives or a prepaid funeral plan in place) and may claim the costs of the funeral from the deceased’s estate (if there are sufficient funds). The district/borough councils may undertake genealogist searches. There may be exceptional circumstances when Adult Social Care takes the decision to exercise its power under section 46(2) and (5) of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 to make the arrangements to bury or cremate the body of a deceased person who immediately before their death was being provided with “accommodation” under the Care Act 2014.

You should not attend the funeral of a person or carer who has died without having sought prior consent from your line manager to do so.

Under normal circumstances it would not be appropriate for you to attend a funeral.

1. Funerals are private occasions for family and friends, and you are neither;
2. Attending a funeral can alter or blur the dimensions of your working relationship with an individual or family, making it more difficult to maintain professional boundaries in the future;
3. Your attendance could be intimidating or intrusive to some family members;
4. Information about a person's life that they had previously declined to disclose to you could be shared. This could present you with moral dilemmas around confidentiality and consent;
5. The impact of a funeral on your own emotional resilience could be greater than anticipated.

If all of the following exceptional circumstances apply, your line manager could decide to agree your attendance at the funeral:

1. You have been specifically asked to attend the funeral by a person or carer; and
2. You knew the person or carer who has died for a significant period of time; and
3. Your attendance would be beneficial to a person or carer (as opposed to being for your own benefit); and
4. Your attendance would not be seen by any family member or person present as intrusive or intimidating; and
5. Your attendance will not have a negative impact on any ongoing involvement you will/may have; and
6. You feel you will be able to maintain a professional position during the funeral.

Your attendance may also be agreed if the person or carer had:

1. no family or friends; or
2. family and friends have made clear their intention not to attend the funeral.

If you attend a funeral, you do so as a representative of the Local Authority and must maintain a professional position at all times in respect of your:

1. appearance;
2. communication; and
3. behaviour.

It would not normally be appropriate for you to attend a wake.

If a person has died without leaving a will or any known blood relatives, refer the deceased person’s estate to the Treasury Solicitor by notifying the Bona Vacantia division (BVD) of the Government Legal Department that a person has died without leaving a will or any known blood relatives. More information can be accessed online.

See: Refer a deceased person’s estate to the Treasury Solicitor

Before you refer an estate, BVD does not deal with estates where:

• there is a valid Will, even if the executor and beneficiaries cannot be traced or do not wish to deal with the estate. If the executor or beneficiaries have formally renounced their interest in the estate, see: Is there a will?;
• there are known or likely to be entitled relatives who survived the deceased even if these have subsequently died, cannot be traced or do not wish to deal with the estate;
• the net value of the estate is below £500;
• the estate is insolvent (there are more debts than assets);
• the deceased lived outside England & Wales – you should contact the authorities in the country where they lived;
• the deceased lived within either of the Duchies of Lancaster or Cornwall at the time of their death. These estates are dealt with by Farrer & Co Solicitors; 
• a death certificate is not provided. Prior to referring an estate, you should contact the informant on the death certificate to find out if they themselves are entitled relatives or have any information about a Will or any relatives; if they are relatives or know of any or of a Will then you should not refer the estate to BVD;
• if a Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration has already been taken out to the estate. You should check for a grant to the estate on Find a Will. If you locate a grant, you should contact the Executor or administrator of the estate named in the grant.

It is unlikely that a Grant of Probate would be required to deal with their assets. Different banks and financial institutions have different thresholds for Probate, with some agreeing to release up to £50,000 without Probate, while others set the limit at £5,000.

You may not need probate if the person who died:

• had jointly owned land, property, shares or money – these will automatically pass to the surviving owners;
• only had savings or premium bonds.

You should discuss the matter with your Lead Practitioner, who will consider making an application to the Area Manager/Head of Service for payment of the debt with the view to follow up payment with family if needed. Each request will be considered on a case-by-case basis as not all circumstances are the same.