Caring for a Parent
The operating brief for the adult child who has just become the lead carer.
What this brief is
Sequencing the practical work — GP and consultant contacts, medication schedule, LPA registration confirmations, attendance allowance, the social-care assessment, the home adaptation grants, and the financial sequencing for a parent's care over the next twelve to thirty-six months.
How this brief is read
Read the sample on this page, using the Pemberton-Walsh household throughout.
Open a free account and the brief becomes editable with your own data — your records, your trusted persons, your professional advisers.
Household Continuity Dossier membership (£195 first year, then £99/year) holds the record on the register, prompts the annual review, and issues the Governance Letter when a circumstance changes.
From the brief
Five million UK adults are currently looking after an elderly parent. Most have no legal authority to do the things they are already doing — paying their mother's bills, ringing the GP, sitting through the consultant's appointment, opening the post. They are running a parent's affairs on goodwill and habit, with no protocol for what to do when the bank refuses to speak to them, when the GP won't return the call, when the care assessment is scheduled while they are at work.
This pack is the protocol. It maps the UK adult-social-care, NHS, banking, and legal systems as they actually behave in 2026, and tells you what to do, in what order.
The single most expensive mistake adult children make is waiting too long. Capacity is a one-way door: once it goes, the lawful routes for setting up authority (LPA, banking mandates, online access) close. What was a £92 form last year becomes a £400+ Court of Protection deputyship application this year.
Lasting Power of Attorney — if one exists
Two types — confirm which exist. Property & Financial Affairs LPA: lets you act on bank accounts, bills, property, investments. Can be used while the donor still has capacity, with their consent. Health & Welfare LPA: lets you make medical, care-home, and life-sustaining-treatment decisions. Can only be used once the donor lacks capacity to make those decisions.
The full brief continues — personalised with your household's details.