What a care home offers that home care cannot

How care homes work covers what a home does day to day, and the difference between a nursing home and a care home is the distinction that decides whether there is a nurse on site. The pillar page, care at home or a care home, has the costs and the signs either way in one place.

The night is the expensive part of staying at home, and the day is usually cheaper than people expect. Hourly visits on PrimeCarers are £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included, a carer sleeping in the house is from £130 a night, and a live-in carer is about £1,120 a week. Before deciding anything on price, search for carers near you and compare their rates, because the figure for your postcode is not the national average. What care costs where you live puts a number on a week for your area, and current rates sets out what a visit, a night and a week come to.

Where the house itself is the obstacle rather than the care, separate that out before deciding. Home adaptations that reduce the need for care covers what can be changed, and a Disabled Facilities Grant from the council is worth up to £30,000 in England towards work such as a stairlift or a level access shower, subject to a means test on household income and savings.

Care at home has its own paperwork. You agree visits directly with the carer under a written contract. Ending it takes 48 hours' notice for hourly care, and seven days for live-in care once 168 hours have been worked. A visit you cancel is still paid for in full, apart from an unplanned hospital admission, illness, or another reason the carer agrees to. Bank holidays are charged at one and a half times the carer's rate and Christmas Day at twice. Deposits, cancellation and notice goes through all of it. A care home has its own terms on notice and fees, and they are worth asking for in writing before anybody signs.

If the worry is nights or nursing, a care home answers it in a way that visits during the day do not. If the worry is that your mother would stop being herself in a room she does not know, home care answers that in a way no home can. When home care stops being enough sets out the signs that the first group has taken over, and choosing a care home covers what to look at once the decision has gone that way.

For a couple the two columns stop being close. One live-in carer looking after both people is about £1,350 a week, and two care home places at the figure above come to about £2,320. Live-in care for couples takes that further, is live-in care cheaper than a care home? does the arithmetic for one person, and care home versus home care a week sets both out week by week.

Benefits move too. Attendance Allowance is £76.70 or £114.60 a week depending on how much help is needed, and it is not means-tested. It carries on if your relative pays their own care home fees, but usually stops if the council is paying for the home, and the care element of these benefits is generally paid only for the first 28 days of a stay. Nothing changes if care stays at home. Attendance Allowance explains how to claim it, and NHS Continuing Healthcare covers the route where the NHS pays for the whole package, at home or in a home.

Sources for the figures in this section: NHS: care homes, NHS: financial assessment, gov.uk: social care charging 2026 to 2027, gov.uk: NHS-funded nursing care rate, gov.uk: Attendance Allowance.

1. 1

   Ask the council for a care needs assessment

   Free, and your relative has a right to one

   A social worker or occupational therapist writes down what your relative can and cannot do, and the hours and kind of help needed. It is free, and it gives you a document to price both routes against. The care needs assessment explains what happens in one.
2. 2

   Write down which of the six worries is yours

   Ten minutes

   Nights, nursing, company, the house, what happens as needs change, or who is accountable. Where a family is going round in circles it is often because two people are answering different questions.
3. 3

   Price both properly, for your postcode

   An afternoon

   Ask two or three homes for their weekly fee in writing and for a list of what is charged on top. Then price the same week at home, nights included if nights are the problem. The costs people forget covers what falls outside both quotes.
4. 4

   Visit two homes and speak to two or three carers

   The same week, if you can

   Go to a home at a mealtime and read its inspection report first. Then interview carers and ask about the part of the day you are worried about. How to interview carers has the questions, and how we vet every carer sets out the checks a carer has had before they appear.
5. 5

   Decide for now, and put a date on reviewing it

   Three months

   Neither answer has to be permanent. Care at home can be tried and changed, a short stay is a normal way to test a home, and the assessment can be redone when things move. Put the review in the diary now, so it happens before the next crisis.