Updated 1 April 2026
Every price we charge, on one page
You should not have to ring a care company and sit through a sales conversation to find out what it costs. Here is the entire rate card, including the awkward bits like bank holidays and cancellations.
Hourly & visiting care
Visiting care rates
Minimum visit one hour. Charged in 30-minute increments after that. No mileage charge anywhere in our 17 covered towns.
| Service | Weekday | Weekend | Bank holiday |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal care Washing, dressing, medication, meals | £31.50 | £33.80 | £42.00 |
| Dementia care Capped three-carer rota, life-story work | £33.00 | £35.40 | £44.00 |
| Companionship Outings, conversation, shopping, appointments | £29.50 | £31.60 | £39.30 |
| Domestic support only Cleaning, laundry, cooking — no personal care | £27.00 | £29.00 | £36.00 |
| Double-up visit Two carers, where moving & handling requires it | £56.70 | £60.80 | £75.60 |
Nights & live-in
Overnight and live-in rates
| Service | Rate | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Sleeping night | £185 / night | 10pm–7am. Carer sleeps in the house, available if needed. Up to two call-outs included. |
| Waking night | £265 / night | 10pm–7am awake throughout. For frequent needs, night-time wandering or end-of-life care. |
| Live-in care | £1,395 / week | One person. Includes a daily two-hour break covered by a relief carer. |
| Live-in, couple | £1,690 / week | Two people in the same house. Frequently less than two residential beds. |
| Live-in dementia care | £1,495 / week | Dementia-trained live-in carer, capped relief rota. |
| Live-in, complex needs | £1,640 / week | PEG feeding, stoma, catheter, hoist transfers, end-of-life. |
In real money
What families actually end up paying
Rates per hour are hard to picture. These are the four commonest packages on our books this month, with the real weekly totals including weekends.
Light touch
One hour, five days a week
per week · 5 hours
- Usually a morning call
- Where most families start
Morning & evening
Two hours a day, all week
per week · 14 hours
- Weekend rate already included
- Same two carers
Three visits daily
Morning, tea, bedtime
per week · 21 hours
- £693 with dementia support
- Fixed clock times
Live-in
24 hours, at home
per week · one person
- Two-week trial, no penalty
- £1,690 for a couple
The small print, made large
What we don't charge for
This is where most providers quietly recover margin. Here is our complete list of extras, which is short on purpose.
- No assessment fee — the home visit and written care plan are free, whether you proceed or not
- No registration or set-up fee
- No mileage charge inside our 17 covered towns. Outside them, 45p a mile, agreed in advance
- No charge to change carer if the fit isn't right
- Nothing while they're in hospital — the account pauses the day they're admitted
- No exit fee and no minimum term — seven days' notice, any time
The two things we do charge for: visits cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice are charged in full, because the carer is already paid for that slot. And Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day are charged at double the weekday rate, which goes to the carer working them.
Paying for it
Four ways this gets funded, and how to find out which is yours
David Whitmore does this assessment free of charge for anyone who asks, including people who never become clients. It takes about twenty minutes on the phone.
Local authority funding
Capital under £14,250: the council generally pays. £14,250–£23,250: a sliding contribution. Above £23,250: self-funding. Trafford, Manchester and Cheshire East all do a free Care Act assessment for anyone who asks.
Attendance Allowance
£73.90 or £110.40 a week in 2026, not means-tested — savings and income are irrelevant. Roughly a third of the families we meet qualify and had no idea. That's up to £5,740 a year.
NHS Continuing Healthcare
If the primary need is a health need rather than a social one, the NHS may fund the entire package. It's hard to get and the assessment is gruelling, but we've supported nine successful applications since 2020.
Self-funding
Most of our clients. Worth knowing: care fees paid from an annuity can be tax-free, and a deferred payment agreement lets the council fund care against the value of the house rather than selling it now.
Money questions
The ones people feel awkward asking
Sometimes we are, and here's the arithmetic. We pay carers £13.85–£15.60 an hour, plus travel time between visits, plus a pension. A provider charging £24 an hour is paying near minimum wage and not paying travel time, which means the carer is effectively earning below it once they're driving between calls.
Underpaid carers leave. Our turnover is 11% against a sector average of 28%, which is the only reason we can promise the same faces. You are not paying for our margin; you are paying for the fact that Rebecca is still there in fourteen months.
Once a year, on 1 April, and we give every client ninety days' written notice. The 2026 increase was 4.1%, driven by the National Living Wage rise and employer NI. We publish the reason for the increase alongside the number, and if you don't like it you can leave with seven days' notice.
Please do — it's what we'd advise anyway. About two thirds of our clients begin with a single hour a few days a week, often framed as help with the housework rather than "care", and build from there as trust grows. There's no minimum package and no penalty for changing.
The account pauses the day she's admitted and you pay nothing at all while she's in, however long that is. We hold the carers and the slots for up to eight weeks so the same people are there when she gets home. That costs us money and we think it's the right thing.
Every four weeks in arrears — never in advance — by direct debit or bank transfer. The invoice itemises every visit with its date, start time, end time and carer name, so you can check it against the app. If a visit was short, tell us and we credit it without argument.
Get it costed to the pound, free
A home visit gives you a written care plan with a weekly figure at the bottom, plus David's view on what you might be entitled to. No obligation and no follow-up unless you want one.