A guide for families, sourced to the law
They're Sending Her Home On Friday
The 8 questions to ask, and what to do with the answers.
You have been handed a responsibility that was never legally yours. This book is a map of how far it actually extends — so you can do your part, on the record, and put the rest down.
By Thomas James
Written for one person, in one state
You are somewhere between 45 and 70. You are in a hospital corridor, a car park, or awake at 2am. You have not slept properly in three days. You are frightened, and you are angry, and underneath the anger you feel guilty about being angry.
You are not stupid. You may run a department at work. But stress collapses reading ability, and right now you can hold about two ideas at once. This book is written in plain English on purpose — not because you need it simplified, but because everyone reads better under pressure when it is.
What the book does
Every factual claim in this book is sourced, in a note, to the law or guidance behind it. If something you're told on the ward doesn't match what's in the book, the source is what settles it.
8 questions, answered
Not a general explainer. A specific sequence of things to ask, in the order you'll need them, with what to do once you have the answer.
Scripts you can say out loud
Every script is short, never adversarial, and ends with a specific ask — usually something in writing. Read every one before it went in the book, to check it holds up under real pressure.
Sourced to primary law
The Care Act 2014, the Mental Capacity Act 2005, NHS and NICE guidance — not blog posts, not forum comments, not a competing book's opinion.
Honest about what won't go well
No promise that everything works out. Hope through capability and clarity, not through prediction — because a book that promises a good outcome fails you exactly when you need it most.
The companion workbook
The Discharge File
A written note settles an argument. A memory doesn't. This is a place to keep every name, every promise, and every date in one place — the people directory, the conversation log, the medicines record, the rota, and more.
Most families manage with a notebook, and that works fine. This is the notebook, organised for you, so you're not designing a system for it at 11pm.
Sold separately from the main book — get notified when both are available →
Resources
Every link referenced in the book will live here, kept current. Law and guidance change — benefit rates and thresholds change every April — and a website can be corrected the day something moves. A printed page can't.
- Carer's assessment — how to ask for one Coming soon
- Reablement and intermediate care, explained Coming soon
- NHS Continuing Healthcare checklist Coming soon
- Current benefit rates and capital limits Coming soon
- Who to contact — the full directory Coming soon
This page is being built alongside the book, so every link matches what's actually printed. Sign up below and you'll hear the moment it goes live.
Get notified
No newsletter, no noise. An email when the book is published, when the workbook is available, and when the resources page goes live — nothing else.
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