What you will be quoted
Help at home through an agency generally sits somewhere between £25 and £35 an hour, depending on where you live and what is needed. Evenings, weekends and bank holidays usually attract a premium, and most set a minimum visit length because shorter calls are difficult to staff.
It is worth asking any provider three specific questions: what is the minimum visit, what is the rate at weekends, and how much of the hourly rate the helper receives. The last question is the one most people never think to ask, and the answer tells you a great deal about how the service works.
Where the money actually goes
In an agency, the hourly rate covers far more than the helper’s time. It funds recruitment, training, supervision, office staff, insurance, compliance and travel between visits. That is legitimate — an agency carries real responsibility, and that costs money to do properly.
The consequence, though, is that the person who actually arrives at the door often takes home somewhere between £12 and £16 of a £30 hour. Low pay is a large part of why turnover is so high, and turnover is why so many families see a different face every week.
An introduction agency works differently. It introduces you to a self-employed helper and you arrange the visits yourself, so there is no management layer to fund. On Witho, helpers set their own rate from £20 an hour and keep every penny; we add 10 per cent to your total to run the platform and insure each visit. So a £20 helper costs you £22 an hour, and £20 of that reaches the person at your door rather than £13.
Support and care are different things, at different prices
Care means personal and clinical tasks — washing, dressing, toileting, medication. It is regulated by the Care Quality Commission, and that regulation is a large part of what makes it expensive. Support means everything around it: the shopping, the company, the lift to the appointment, the post, the garden.
A great many families pay care-agency rates for what is really support. If nobody needs help washing or with medication, an introduction agency for home support will cost you considerably less, because there is no regulatory overhead and no management layer to fund. When personal care genuinely is needed, use a registered provider — and be wary of anyone who blurs the line.
The costs people forget to budget for
Mileage if a helper drives your relative to appointments — 45p a mile is the usual reference point, being HMRC’s approved rate. Shopping money and any tickets or entry fees on an outing. Any equipment or adaptations, though an occupational therapy assessment through your council may cover some of these at no cost.
Also plan for the fact that needs change. Most families start smaller than they end up, and the sensible question when choosing a provider is not only what today costs but how easily the arrangement can grow.