No social care is free. If the Local Authority (LA) decided you need care they will assess you and try and provide it in your own home. In this case your income and savings, excluding your home can be assessed and you will be told what the LA will pay. At this point watch out for "top-ups". Most LAs have a ceiling on what they will pay per hour and you will have to pay the amount assessed by th LA plus a "top-up" to reach the companies actual charges if they are higher than the LAs ceiling.
It is worth getting the LA involved even if you decide to move into a home and know you will be paying in full. This way an assessment of your needs will be done. Often people go into a home after a stay in hospital. Your LA will have a general cap on how many home visits they will pay for. For example, in our area it is four half-hour visits.
If it is assessed that you need more than this the LA will look for a home that is within what they allow as a room rate and that suits your needs. If they are likely to be paying this home could be anywhere within your local authorities and I believe some go into neighbouring areas. They will try to keep you close to relatives but that is not always possible.
You get the first 12 weeks in the home assessed on your income and savings, excluding your home. If you have been working with the LA you should also get a visit from your sociable worker at some point to assess that the home is meeting you needs.
After 12 weeks the assessment for what you pay includes the value of your home. If you cannot afford to pay this you may be offered a loan by the LA which is discharged on completion of the sale.
Payment in full will continue until your savings including those from the sale of your home reach £23,250. At this point you will be assessed with an amount included, at an assumed income, based on your savings between £14,250 and £23,250. Rather than assessing what you pay at this point you pay all but the amount the LA says you must be left with. This is usually around £25 to £30 a week. You are then reassessed annually and when you savings fall below £14,250 an assumed amount of income ceases to be added.
This is based on my knowledge of our local authority. It may vary from LA to LA as social care is not a national service.