Choose a home care agency in Surrey by running seven checks: CQC registration and rating, independent reviews, published prices, whether carers are employed and DBS-checked, sickness cover, how fast care can start, and a local office you can phone. Every check takes minutes, costs nothing, and works on any agency, including us.
There are dozens of home care agencies in Surrey, and every single one of their brochures says “compassionate”, “trusted” and “person-centred”, usually over a stock photo of someone laughing at a salad. We run one of those agencies, so we know exactly what the brochures leave out. Here is the checklist we would use for our own parents, with the evidence you can verify yourself, no salad required.
Why is “the best agency” the wrong question?
Nobody can honestly tell you which agency is “the best”, including the agencies. What exists instead is public, checkable evidence: an inspection rating from the regulator, review scores from real families, published prices, and a handful of practical questions that separate a well-run operation from a glossy leaflet.
So rather than declare ourselves the finest care company since records began (our mums already hold that view, and they are biased), we will give you the method. Where a check has a verifiable Aims answer, we will state it with the source, and you are warmly invited to go and check it. That is rather the point.
What are the seven checks before choosing a care agency?
Work through these in order. Most take five minutes; the whole list fits inside one pot of tea.
Check 1: CQC registration and rating.
Every genuine home care agency in England must be registered with the Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator. You can look up any agency free at cqc.org.uk/care-services: type the name, read the inspection report. If an agency is not on there, walk away, briskly.
The CQC awards one of four ratings: Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement or Inadequate. Good means the service is performing well and meeting the regulator’s standards; the great majority of decent providers sit here. Read the report itself too, not just the badge, because it tells you what inspectors actually saw.
Our own entry: Aims Homecare is rated Good by the CQC, rating published 19 August 2026. Yes, we refreshed the page a few times that morning.
Check 2: real reviews on an independent platform.
Any agency can fill its own website with praise. Independent platforms are harder to garden, and homecare.co.uk is the main one for home care: reviews come from clients and their families, and the score is out of ten. Look for a healthy number of reviews, not just a pretty score from three of them, and read the recent ones for patterns.
Aims currently scores 9.3 out of 10 from 50 reviews on homecare.co.uk. We did not write them, our mums did not write them, and you can read every one.
Check 3: published prices, or quote-only mystery.
Some agencies publish their prices. Others make you phone, sit through the hold music, and endure a soft sales chat before a number is mentioned. Price secrecy is not automatically sinister, but it does make comparison impossible, and comparison is exactly what you are trying to do this week.
We publish ours: visits from £22 for 30 minutes, from £28 for an hour, and live-in care from £225 per full 24 hours, with the exact quote confirmed after a free home assessment (July 2026 rates, the same seven days a week, no weekend or bank holiday premiums). The full list is on our pricing page, in daylight, where prices belong.
Check 4: employed carers, or an introduction agency.
Two very different businesses share the name “care agency”. A regulated provider employs, trains, insures and supervises its care professionals, and the CQC inspects the care itself. An introduction agency matches you with self-employed carers for a fee: often cheaper per hour, but the carer works for you, you sort cover when they are unwell, and the care itself usually sits outside CQC oversight.
Neither model is wicked, and for some families an introduction agency is a sensible fit. Just know which one you are buying, because they are not comparable on price alone. For the record, our 52 care professionals are trained, DBS-checked and employed directly by Aims, in the green uniform, so you always know who is at the door.
Check 5: what happens when a carer is off sick.
This is the question that separates an agency from a rota taped to a fridge. Carers are human; they catch the same winter bugs as everyone else. The difference is what happens at 7am when they do. Ask directly: who covers the visit, how is the replacement briefed, and will anyone tell the family? A good agency has a plan and can describe it without blinking. A poor one changes the subject to how compassionate they are.
Check 6: how fast care can start.
Families rarely research home care for fun; usually something has happened, often a fall or a hospital discharge, and the calendar matters. Ask each agency how quickly care can realistically begin, and whether that promise survives contact with an actual start date. At Aims, care can begin within 24 to 48 hours of the free assessment. If you have longer to plan, lovely; if you do not, it is worth knowing who can move.
Check 7: a local office you can actually phone.
When plans change, and they will, you want a human who knows the area and knows the client, not a national call centre reading your file for the first time. Ask where the office is and who answers the phone. Ours is in Leatherhead, we have been at this for over 15 years across more than 2,000 families, and the number is 01372 386222. A real person answers. Occasionally mid-biscuit, but they answer.
How do the seven checks look side by side?
| Check | What good looks like | Where to verify |
|---|---|---|
| 1. CQC registration and rating | Registered, rated Good or Outstanding, recent report reads well | cqc.org.uk/care-services, free |
| 2. Independent reviews | Strong score across a decent number of recent reviews | homecare.co.uk |
| 3. Prices | Published openly, with a free assessment before a final quote | The agency’s website |
| 4. Carer employment | Carers employed, trained and DBS-checked by the agency | Ask, and check the CQC report |
| 5. Sickness cover | A clear cover plan, briefed replacements, family kept informed | Ask on the phone |
| 6. Speed of start | A realistic start date, in days not weeks when it matters | Ask on the phone |
| 7. Local office | A named local office and a phone answered by a human | Ring it and see |
How do published prices compare?
For context while you compare quotes across Surrey, here are our published from-rates against the typical UK range:
A gentle warning that works in both directions: the cheapest quote is not automatically the best value, and the dearest is not automatically the safest. What matters is what the price includes, which is what the phone questions below are for.
What should you ask on the phone?
Have this list ready when you ring around. Good agencies answer these happily; you learn a great deal from any that squirm.
- Is that rate the same at weekends and bank holidays?
- Are your carers employed by you, and DBS-checked and trained?
- Who covers the visit if our regular carer is ill, and how are they briefed?
- Will we have a consistent carer, or a rotating cast?
- What is your minimum visit length, and what does it cost?
- How quickly could care actually start?
- Where is your office, and who do I call when something changes at 6pm on a Sunday?
Does the same method work everywhere in Surrey?
Yes. Whether you are comparing agencies in Leatherhead, Guildford, Woking, Epsom, Kingston or Camberley, the checks are identical, because the CQC register, homecare.co.uk and a telephone all work the same across the county. Coverage differs, though: not every agency serves every town, so confirm early that a shortlisted agency genuinely covers your postcode with a consistent local team rather than a long commute.
One more Surrey-specific step worth taking before you sign anything: ask Surrey County Council adult social care (0300 200 1005) for a free needs assessment. It costs nothing regardless of your finances, it clarifies exactly what support is needed, and if you qualify for council help, direct payments can be spent with a provider you choose. Our funding support page walks through the whole business, forms and all.
What should you do next?
- Shortlist two or three agencies that cover your town, and run checks 1 to 3 online with a cup of tea. Ten minutes per agency, honestly.
- Phone your shortlist with the questions above, and notice which answers arrive without hesitation.
- Book the free assessments. A home visit tells you more than any brochure: how they listen, what they suggest, and whether the quote matches the promises.
- Start small and adjust. Many families begin with a few hourly visits a week and shape the routine as they learn what helps. Our FAQs cover the practicalities.
Frequently asked questions.
How do I check if a care agency is CQC registered?
Search the agency’s name free at cqc.org.uk/care-services. Its page shows registration, its current rating (Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement or Inadequate) and the full inspection report. If an agency providing personal care is not on the register at all, do not use it.
What is a good homecare.co.uk score?
Scores run out of ten, and the strongest providers sit roughly in the nines, backed by a decent number of reviews rather than a handful. Read recent reviews for patterns too. For reference, Aims Homecare scores 9.3 out of 10 from 50 reviews on homecare.co.uk.
Should I choose the cheapest home care agency?
Not on price alone. A low hourly rate can hide unpaid carer travel time, rushed visits or an introduction model where you handle sickness cover yourself. Compare what each price includes, then weigh it against the CQC rating, reviews and the answers to your phone questions.
How quickly can home care start in Surrey?
It varies by agency and demand, so ask each one directly for a realistic date. At Aims, care can usually begin within 24 to 48 hours of the free home assessment, which matters most after a hospital discharge or a fall when waiting weeks is not an option.
If Aims makes your shortlist, we would be delighted, and slightly nervous, to be checked. Call our Leatherhead team on 01372 386222 or book a free assessment, and bring the seven checks with you. We will put the kettle on.
Sources and references.
- Care Quality Commission, find and check a care service, and Aims Homecare’s CQC page (rating published 19 August 2026)
- homecare.co.uk, independent reviews of home care providers (Aims: 9.3/10 from 50 reviews)
- Aims Homecare price sheet, July 2026, at aimshomecare.co.uk/pricing
- Surrey County Council, adult social care, 0300 200 1005
- GOV.UK, apply for a needs assessment
- Age UK, paying for homecare