Moving into a care home: a checklist

Updated August 2026

Written by the team at Stronvar Rest Home, Brightlingsea. Last checked August 2026. This is general guidance for families, not legal or financial advice.

Before the move

• Confirm the date and the room with the home, and read the contract and fee sheet properly
• Sort out the funding: self-funding, council funded, or a top up, with figures in writing
• Get an up to date medication list from the GP, and enough medication in its original packaging for the first weeks
• Ask the GP whether your relative can stay registered with the practice or needs to register with one near the home
• Find the NHS number, and any hospital discharge letter or care plan
• Have copies of any Lasting Power of Attorney to hand; the home will ask
• Write a one page "about me": how they like to be addressed, when they get up, how they take their tea, what they enjoy, what upsets them

What to bring

A fully furnished room is a starting point, not a finished one. People settle faster when the room already looks like theirs.

• Clothes for at least a week, labelled, including nightwear, a dressing gown, slippers and comfortable shoes
• Their own furniture where the home allows it: the armchair, a small table, a lamp, the clock from the hall
• Photographs, pictures for the walls, and a favourite blanket or cushion
• Glasses, hearing aids and dentures, all labelled, with spare batteries
• Toiletries they actually like, not a hospital bag
• The radio, the television if they want their own, books, knitting, whatever fills a quiet afternoon
• A small amount of cash for the hairdresser or the paper, but not valuables or large sums

The first week

• Expect a wobble. Almost everyone has a few difficult days, and it does not mean the decision was wrong.
• Visit, but do not hover. Staff will tell you honestly how things are going.
• Tell the staff the small things: the tea, the bedtime, the chair by the window. Give them the "about me" page.
• Keep the old routines where you can: the Sunday phone call, the weekly visit, the church, the bowls club.

The admin nobody mentions

• Redirect the post, or arrange for a relative to collect it
• Tell the Pension Service, and the office that pays any benefits, about the change of address and circumstances
• Tell the council tax office; a home left empty because someone has moved permanently into care may be exempt
• Tell the bank, the GP surgery, the dentist and the optician
• Cancel or transfer utilities, insurance and subscriptions at the old address when the time is right

At Stronvar

Bring everything that makes the room theirs. We will ask for the medication list, the GP details and any power of attorney, and we will want to hear the small things, because those are the care. Residential care at Stronvar.