Home care
Care that comes to them
rather than the other way round
Home care means a vetted carer comes to your loved one’s own home, for an hour a day or around the clock. This page explains the types, what each costs, and how to choose. When you are ready, the carers are one search away.
3,500+ vetted carers across 191 counties
Prefer to talk it through? Call 0203 369 3624
Home care at a glance
Typical prices on PrimeCarers, our fee included
Which type do we need?
Three questions, and a place to start
Most families arrive here knowing something has to change, not which kind of care it should be. Pick the answers closest to your situation.
Our suggestion
Answer the three questions
We will suggest the type of home care that usually fits, what it tends to cost, and where to read more. It takes about ten seconds.
- What kind of help is needed?
- When is help needed?
- How soon?
The types of home care
Ten kinds of help, one home
They overlap on purpose. A carer who comes for two hours on Tuesdays can become the carer who moves in a year later. Each type has its own guide.
“Domiciliary care” is the council’s word for the same thing: care delivered in the home. If a social worker has used it, they mean hourly visits.
What home care costs
Most families pay about
£20/hour
Carers on PrimeCarers set their own rates, and most sit between £18 and £25 an hour with our fee included. Overnight care is £130 to £160 a night, and live-in care starts from £1,050 a week, typically £1,120.
Agencies charge more for the same visit because an office sits between you and the carer. Hiring someone yourself is cheaper on paper, until you count the checks, insurance and payroll you take on.
Average hourly rate near you
Live figures from carers’ own rates
- Bristol£19.77/hr
- Cornwall£20.13/hr
- Devon£19.90/hr
- Durham£19.37/hr
- Edinburgh£19.38/hr
- Essex£19.98/hr
- Glasgow£19.70/hr
- Hampshire£19.92/hr
- Kent£19.88/hr
- London£19.83/hr
- Manchester£19.55/hr
- Norfolk£20.05/hr
- Nottingham£19.89/hr
- Somerset£19.90/hr
- Surrey£19.86/hr
- West Yorkshire£19.59/hr
Each county page shows live-in and overnight averages too, and the towns it covers. Find your county.
Home care or a care home?
Most people would rather stay. Often they can.
Live-in care for one person costs about the same as a good care home, from £1,050 a week and typically £1,120, and hourly visits cost far less if round-the-clock help is not needed yet. The question is rarely money alone; it is what kind of life the person wants.
They keep their home, routines and pets
Familiar surroundings matter more than most people expect, and with dementia they matter enormously.
One-to-one, not one carer to eight residents
A home carer is there for one person. In a care home, staff are shared across a floor.
It scales with need
You can start with two visits a week, add nights when they are needed, and move to live-in care if it comes to that. Nobody has to move house to get more help.
For couples it is usually far cheaper
A care home charges two fees. A live-in carer looks after both for one rate, around a fifth more than for one.
Care for a condition
If there is a diagnosis, start there
The type of care follows from what the person needs, and what they need often follows from a condition. Each of these guides explains what a carer does day to day for it, and when needs tend to change.
How it works
From “something has to change” to a carer at the door
No assessment visits, no waiting list. Some families are talking to a carer the same day.
Search your postcode
See the carers who cover it, with photos, rates, experience and reviews. Filter by hourly, live-in or overnight.
Talk to the ones you like
Message them directly, or tell us what you need and we can suggest some carers to look at. The choice is always yours.
Meet before deciding
A call, a video chat or a visit, free and before anything is booked. A lot of families have a good idea within the first ten minutes.
Book, and change it as needs change
Contract, insurance and payment run through us. You can add visits, add nights, or move to live-in care as things change, and you only pay for care that happens.
Safety first
Someone coming into their home? We take that seriously.
Letting a carer into the home of someone you love takes trust. We've built every layer of protection so that trust is earned, not assumed.
Vetting that never stops
Enhanced DBS, ID and right-to-work checks and an online interview before a carer appears, then continuous DBS monitoring for as long as they work. We check that a carer is caring; their skills and training are for you to check with them.
Insured and above board
Every visit is insured, contracted and paid securely online after care happens. There is no cash and no informal arrangement to manage.
A real person who knows you
Your own account manager and a UK support team who know you, your carer and your situation, not a call centre script.
Help when plans change
If your carer is unwell or away, our team will always do their best to find you vetted cover at short notice.
What clients say
Our Latest Carer Reviews
Margaret N
"Excellent - Lovely lady. My mother is so pleased with the work she does in helping her."
Read the full review
Julia S
"Julia is a highly skilled and companionate carer who is able to give so much of herself and adapt to any situation."
Read the full review
Andres Felipe C
"My son who he is caring for automatically welcomed Andres and can be heard laughing & having fun with Andres."
Read the full reviewHome care near you
191 counties and boroughs, each with its own page
Local rates, the towns we cover, and the carers working there.
191 of 191 areas
B
C
D
E
H
M
N
S
W
Y
Questions families ask
Home care, answered
Care that comes to the person’s own home instead of the person moving to a care home. It covers everything from an hour of company a week to a live-in carer around the clock, and includes personal care, medication, meals, housework, trips out and overnight help. See the ten types.
None. “Domiciliary care” is the term councils and the CQC use for care delivered in someone’s home. When a social worker says domiciliary care, they mean hourly visits from a carer. Hourly care explained.
On PrimeCarers most carers charge between £18 and £25 an hour, typically about £20, with our fee included. Overnight care is £130 to £160 a night, and live-in care starts from £1,050 a week. Rates vary by area; each county page shows local averages. The full cost guide.
Often. Attendance Allowance is not means-tested and most older people who need daily help qualify. Councils contribute after a care-needs assessment and a financial assessment. NHS Continuing Healthcare can cover the whole cost where needs are mainly health-related. Funding options explained.
Self-employed carers you choose yourself. Every carer on PrimeCarers has passed an Enhanced DBS check, ID and right-to-work verification and an online interview before they can appear in a search, and their DBS status is monitored continuously. You see their profile, rates and reviews, and interview them for free before booking. How private carers work.
Search with a postcode and you will see the carers who cover it. Every county and borough also has its own page with local rates and the towns it covers. Find your county.
There is no waiting list; it depends on which carers are free near you. Families often go from first search to a first visit within days. If it is urgent, call us on 0203 369 3624 and we will look for you. Emergency care.
For most people who want to stay in their own home, yes, and for couples it is usually much cheaper because a care home charges two fees. A care home suits people who want company around them all day or need nursing that cannot be delivered at home. Compare the costs.
Yes, and it usually does. Families start with a few visits a week, add mornings and evenings, then nights, and some move to live-in care. The same carer can often come with you through those steps, which is the point of choosing the person rather than the agency.
You are never locked in. Under our standard contract, either side gives 48 hours’ notice to end hourly care, or 7 days for live-in once the first week has been worked. Notice applies only to visits already agreed, not to future work. Tell us if a match is not right and we will help you find someone else.
Guides
Where to read next
The questions that come up in the first week, answered by the pages that cover them properly.
Deciding
- Is live-in care cheaper than a care home?
- Am I legally responsible for my elderly parent?
- When to consider respite care
- At what point should someone with dementia go into care?
- Leaving hospital: what to arrange
- Home adaptations that reduce the need for care
- Respite at home or in a care home
- What complex care means
- When home care stops being enough
See who is caring near you this week
Real carers, real rates, real reviews. Start with a postcode and see for yourself.