Councils accused of buying home care 'on the cheap'

Councils across the UK have been described as buying home care 'on the cheap', after a new report uncovered the low prices paid for domiciliary care.

The average price paid for home care in the UK is just £16.12 an hour – almost £2 an hour less than the minimum price for home care of £18.01 stipulated by the United Kingdom Homecare Association (UKHCA).

Data gathered from councils in Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care Trusts, through Freedom of Information requests, led to the discovery by the UKHCA, the national association for home care providers.

The UKHCA's report ‘The Home Care Deficit 2018’ reveals the South East and South West are the only regions in the UK to pay more than the UKHCA's minimum price, at £18.20 an hour.

'Buying care on the cheap'

UKHCA policy director Colin Angel, who wrote the report, said: “Having spent months using Freedom of Information requests to obtain prices councils paid for homecare and comparing with @ukhca’s Minimum Price for Homecare, you’ll see why we’ve described councils as “buying care on the cheap”.

The lowest paid rate in England was £14.15 in the North East. In the North West £14.60 was paid. In Greater London it was £15.75.

The average amount paid an hour in Wales was £16.78 and in Scotland it was £16.54. But in Northern Ireland the amount paid dropped to £13.70 an hour.

The UK’s home care sector needs at least £402 million per year to ensure that home care workers receive the statutory National Living Wage, while also ensuring that home care providers can meet their statutory obligations.

However, the size of the deficit this year would be £921 million if national governments and local councils were to commit to raising the status of the home care workforce to the independently calculated Real Living Wage.

Over 4.1 million hours of state-funded homecare is purchased each week in the UK. This enables over 850,000 people to be supported at home and to live independently each year.

To read the report ‘The Home Care Deficit 2018: A report on the funding of older people’s homecare across the United Kingdom' visit the UKHCA's website.