UKHCA says £21.43 per hour is minimum price for home care from April

The United Kingdom Homecare Association has calculated the minimum price for home care services is £21.43 per hour for 2021/22 - that’s 74p more than the £20.69 rate for this year.

The UKHCA believes this minimum rate for 2021/22, ensures home care providers comply with the new National Living Wage rates coming into force next April.

In April, the UK’s statutory National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage increase to £8.36 for 21 to 22 year-olds and £8.91 respectively.

The UKHCA’s minimum price covers the minimum legally compliant pay rate for care workers (excluding any enhancements for unsocial hours working), their travel time, mileage and wage-related costs.

The breakdown of costs included in the new £21.43 hourly rate for the National Living Wage is shown below.

The UKHCA’s calculation set each year is aimed at care providers and commissioners of state-funded social care bought by councils and the NHS in England, Wales and Scotland and by Northern Ireland's health and social care trusts.

Councils must recognise 'true costs' of home care

Colin Angel, UKHCA policy director, said: "Councils and the NHS must recognise the true costs of homecare.

“Paying providers fees which in some cases barely cover the costs of the wage-bill continues to destabilise an already fragile state-funded market.

“Persistently underestimating providers’ business costs is taking a risk with the quality of services, the experience of the workforce, and providers’ ability to comply with the legal requirements placed on them."

UKHCA’s minimum price for home care assumes home care providers receive payments from their commissioning bodies based solely by reference to 'contact time' i.e. the time spent delivering care, excluding care workers’ travel time which must also be factored into providers’ costs.

The typical operating costs of a sustainable home care service are shown below.

The UKHCA has admitted insurance costs rose this year because the insurance market for home care services has contracted and providers renewing their policies ‘have generally experienced increasing premiums since March 2020 and have faced additional exclusions of cover from public liability insurance’.

‘In addition to price increases for insurance cover, some providers are effectively self-insuring for potential claims in relation to coronavirus which they would normally expect to have been met from their public liability cover’, the association stated.

The minimum home care price also excludes the extra costs of personal protective equipment (PPE). If governments in the four UK administrations withdraw supply of COVID19-specific PPE while public health advice requires their use in 2021/22, the UKHCA said these costs would have to be included in the hourly rate paid for home care.

On its website, the UKHCA stated: it ‘will continue to challenge central government on the overall funding of social care.

‘However, it is local authorities and the NHS which are responsible for determining the prices they pay for homecare services at a local level.

‘We encourage homecare providers to share this briefing with the directors of adult services (and their equivalents) in the authorities and NHS commissioning bodies to which they provide services.’