Establishing Ordinary Residence

This procedure is used by all of the following teams and services:

1. Hospital Teams;
2. AFLTC Area Teams;
3. Learning Disabilities Teams;
4. Mental Health Teams;
5. Carers Services.

If you have not already done so, you must confirm ordinary residence status before beginning any care and support/support planning process.

Legally it is the responsibility of the authority to meet the eligible needs of:

1. a person/carer who is ordinarily resident in the area; or
2. a person/carer who is has no settled residence and is present in the area.

See what the Care Act says about Ordinary Residence, including understanding what ordinary residence is, how/when to establish ordinary residence, and how/when to meet the needs of those who are not ordinarily resident in the area.

tri.x has developed a tool to support decision making around ordinary residence.

See: Ordinary Residence Decision Support Tool

The Ordinary Residence Ddecision Support Tool is a helpful starting point but it cannot deal with some of the complexities of ordinary residence. Where another local authority is challenging ordinary residence, it is important that you make contact with the Legal Department with a chronology of the individual’s circumstances so that the individual’s ordinary residence can be clarified.

Also see the Ordinary Residence Procedure.

After accessing the available information in these procedures, you should speak to your line manager if you are unclear about:

1. the ordinary residence status of the person/carer; or
2. whether to commence care and support/support planning based upon ordinary residence status.