Direct paymentsBath and North East Somerset
Direct payments in Bath and North East Somerset
If the council has agreed to pay towards care at home, you can take the money as a direct payment and choose who provides the care. Bath and North East Somerset Council says a direct payment can pay a self-employed carer, with some checks first. Below is what the council publishes about its rates and rules, and what an hour of care costs near you.
32 self-employed carers within about 45 minutes of Bath and North East Somerset
An hour of care in Bath and North East Somerset
- A self-employed carer near youTypical rate on PrimeCarers, our fee included
- £22.50
- Local home care agenciesMedian of 5 agencies nearby that publish a price
- £29.00
A budget worked out at the agency rate buys more hours from a self-employed carer. What a weekly budget buys each way is set out below.
What the council pays
Direct payment rates in Bath and North East Somerset
Bath and North East Somerset Council does not publish its direct payment rates anywhere we could find. Your budget is set in your support plan, from the cost of meeting your eligible needs less anything you are assessed to pay yourself. Ask the council which hourly rate it used, because that decides how many hours the budget buys.
Hours for the money
What a weekly budget buys
A direct payment is a sum of money, so the useful comparison is how many hours of care it pays for. Move the slider to your own weekly budget.
Starts at ten hours a week at the agency rate. Move it to match the budget in your support plan.
- A self-employed carer on PrimeCarers12.5 hours
At £22.50 an hour. The typical rate near you, our fee included. The carer invoices for the hours, and that invoice is your record for the council.
- A local home care agency10 hours
At £29.00 an hour. The median published by 5 agencies near you. The agency sends whoever is on its rota.
Hours are rounded down to the half hour. Bank holidays are charged at one and a half times a carer's rate and Christmas Day at twice, so leave room in the budget for them. Bath and North East Somerset Council decides what your direct payment can be spent on, and your support plan is the final word.
Choosing your carer
Paying a self-employed carer in Bath and North East Somerset
Bath and North East Somerset Council allows a direct payment to pay a self-employed carer, with conditions. A direct payment can pay a self-employed personal assistant, and the council's checklist asks you to check the gov.uk employment status guidance, their right to work in the UK, their HMRC registration and National Insurance number, public liability insurance, an enhanced DBS check paid for by the personal assistant, references and a contract of services.
“Enhanced DBS check - to be provided by and paid for by PA.”
Councils tend to ask for the same few things before a direct payment pays a self-employed carer:
- the carer's employment status for tax, which HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool on gov.uk works out in a few minutes
- proof that the carer is insured
- a DBS certificate
- an invoice for the hours worked, which becomes your record of how the money was spent
How direct payments work covers asking for one, what the money can buy and the records councils want back, and self-employed carer or employee? explains the tax question.
The council's arrangements
How direct payments are run in Bath and North East Somerset
What the council publishes about paying the money, getting help and getting in touch. Each card links to the page we checked it against.
How the money is paid: Separate bank account
Until pre-paid cards are in place, and for all personal health budgets and integrated personal commissioning budgets, a separate direct payment bank account must be opened and used solely for receiving and managing direct payments, and it must have no overdraft facility.
How the money is paid: Prepaid card
The council is working towards implementing a pre-paid card, and it is expected that the majority of new direct payment recipients will use a pre-paid card as their direct payment bank account once this is in place. Pre-paid cards will also be made available to existing direct payment users.
How the money is paid: Managed account
With a full financial account, direct payment funds are paid into a direct payment support service provider's account instead of your own direct payment bank account, and the policy says this option is for exceptional circumstances.
Help with running it
Compass Independent Living. Can offer information and support to people who receive direct payments or self-fund their care, including help with recruitment, DBS checks, a payroll service and a full financial accounts service.
Where the council points you to find a personal assistant
Worth knowing
You may keep an agreed level of contingency funding, holding a balance of up to 4 weeks after planned monthly payments have been made.
Worth knowing
All direct payment accounts are audited by the council's Client Finance team after 2 months.
Worth knowing
A one-off direct payment of up to £500 for a carer does not have to be paid into a separate bank account.
Who is available
Self-employed carers in Bath and North East Somerset
32 carers are based within about 45 minutes of Bath and North East Somerset. You can see their rates and experience, and message them, before committing to anything.
32 private carers are based within about 45 minutes of Bath and North East Somerset
Filter by what they charge, who drives, who does nights, and who speaks your language, then message the ones you like. Free, and nothing is booked until you say so.
See private carers for Bath and North East SomersetStep by step
Using a direct payment for a carer you choose
- Get the assessment and the support plan. The council assesses the care needed and works out the budget. Say at this stage that you want a direct payment and would like to choose your own carer.
- Check what the council allows. Ask the direct payments team whether it will pay a self-employed carer and what it needs to see from them.
- Find carers and talk to a few. Search carers near you, compare rates, experience and reviews, and message your shortlist. None of that costs anything.
- Agree the hours and rate in writing. Match them to the support plan, and keep within the budget once bank holidays are allowed for.
- Keep the records. Invoices and statements are what the council looks at when it reviews how the direct payment is being used.
Questions
Questions about direct payments in Bath and North East Somerset
Yes. A direct payment can pay a self-employed personal assistant, and the council's checklist asks you to check the gov.uk employment status guidance, their right to work in the UK, their HMRC registration and National Insurance number, public liability insurance, an enhanced DBS check paid for by the personal assistant, references and a contract of services. The checks a council asks for are usually the carer's employment status for tax, their insurance and their DBS certificate. Carers on PrimeCarers are self-employed, hold an enhanced DBS and are insured while they work, and they invoice for the hours worked.
We could not find a rate that Bath and North East Somerset Council publishes. The amount is set in your support plan, worked out from the cost of meeting your eligible needs, less anything the financial assessment says you pay yourself. Ask the council how it calculated the hourly figure, because that decides how many hours the budget buys.
Usually it buys more hours. Carers near you typically charge £22.50 an hour against £29.00 for agency care, so a budget worked out at the agency rate buys more hours from a self-employed carer.
In England a direct payment cannot normally pay the person’s husband, wife or partner, or a close relative who lives in the same household, unless the council considers it necessary. That is the direct payments regulations rather than this council's own rule, so ask the direct payments team how it applies it. Can my mum pay me to care for her? covers the other routes.
Only if you employ somebody. Paying a self-employed carer or an agency does not make anyone an employer. Taking on a personal assistant does, which brings payroll, holiday pay, sick pay, pension enrolment and employer's liability insurance. HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool on gov.uk tells you which applies.
Bath and North East Somerset Council's direct payments team at [email protected]. If you do not have a social worker or care assessment yet, start with a needs assessment from adult social care.
Direct payments in nearby council areas
- Direct payments in Bristol
- Direct payments in South Gloucestershire
- Direct payments in North Somerset
- Direct payments in Newport
- Direct payments in Somerset
- Direct payments in Monmouthshire
If the care needed is mainly about health, the NHS may pay for all of it through Continuing Healthcare, decided by the NHS rather than the council. In Bath and North East Somerset that is NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire.
Council details were read from Bath and North East Somerset Council's published pages and checked against them on 17 September 2026. Councils change their rates each April, so check the linked page before relying on a figure. The local agency figure is the median of 5 agencies near Bath and North East Somerset that publish a price. Carer rates are what carers near you advertise, read live.
Find a carer in Bath and North East Somerset
See self-employed carers near you with their hourly rates, experience and reviews, and talk to the ones you like for free. Check with the council what your direct payment can pay for before you book.