Here is the short answer. In 2026, home care visits in Surrey start at £29.95 for 30 minutes, £34.95 for 45 minutes and £36.95 for an hour. Overnight support starts at £175 a night, and live-in care at £245 per full 24 hours. Every figure is a “from” rate, and your exact quote is confirmed after a free home assessment.
Those are our real prices, published in full on our pricing page, and we will get into what they actually buy you in a moment. But first, let’s address the elephant in the industry.
Why is it so hard to get a straight price out of a care company?
You may have noticed something while researching home care. You can find out the cost of almost anything in this country in about four seconds. A flight to Malaga. A conservatory. A llama trek in the Brecon Beacons. But ask a care company what an hour of care costs and suddenly it’s “well, it depends”, followed by a request for your phone number and, in some cases, what feels like your inside leg measurement.
We think that’s daft. You are usually researching care in a stressful week, often after a fall or a hospital letter, and the last thing you need is a game of price hide-and-seek. So this guide gives you actual numbers, ours and the industry’s, each with a source and a date attached. We are a care company writing about care costs, so of course we have a horse in this race. That is exactly why every figure that isn’t ours has a named source.
How much does home care cost per hour?
Across the UK, most regulated home care agencies charge somewhere between £20 and £35 an hour in 2026, depending on where you live and what the visit involves. The Homecare Association, the industry body, calculated that just covering care workers’ wages, travel time and basic legal compliance costs a minimum of £34.42 an hour in England for 2026/27. So if you ever see care advertised at £15 an hour, it is worth asking, politely, what exactly is being skipped.
Our own rates, current from July 2026:
| Visit type | Starting from | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| 30-minute visit | £29.95 | Medication prompts, a welfare check, breakfast |
| 45-minute visit | £34.95 | Personal care with a bit of breathing room |
| 1-hour visit | £36.95 | Washing and dressing, a cooked meal, real conversation |
| Waking night (10pm to 7am) | £30 per hour | A carer awake all night |
| Sleeping night (10pm to 7am) | £175 per night | A carer on hand, asleep nearby |
| Live-in care | £245 per 24 hours | Round-the-clock support, one-to-one |
Two things to know about every one of those numbers. First, they are “from” rates. Your exact quote depends on your care needs, how complex they are, what’s involved in each visit and how far our carers travel, and it is confirmed only after a free, no-obligation assessment at your own home. Second, the rate you are quoted is the rate you pay all week. We do not charge weekend or bank holiday premiums. Care on Christmas morning costs the same as care on a wet Tuesday.
What does a week of home care add up to?
Costs make more sense per week, because that is how care homes quote and how most families budget. Here are some worked examples using our from-rates. Treat them as illustrations rather than quotes, because yours will be built around what you actually need.
The pattern most families miss: home care scales with what you need. Nobody sensible starts with live-in care. Most people start with a visit or two a day, see how it lands, and adjust. There is no need to decide everything at once, and no prize for over-ordering.
What actually changes the price?
- What each visit involves. A medication prompt and a chat is one thing. Support with a hoist, or care for two people, is another.
- Visit length and pattern. Six short visits spread across a day cost more to deliver than one longer one, because travel time is real.
- Complexity of care. Specialist support, for example with dementia or palliative care, needs more skilled carers and more careful planning.
- Distance. We are a local Leatherhead team covering Surrey. If you are at the edge of our patch, travel gets factored in honestly rather than smuggled into a mystery “service charge”.
What does not change the price with us: the day of the week. We say this twice because families are so used to weekend surcharges that they often don’t believe us the first time.
Is home care cheaper than a care home?
Honest answer: it depends on who you are, so beware anyone who gives you a one-word answer.
The average UK care home charged £1,298 a week for residential care and £1,535 a week for nursing care as at July 2026, according to carehome.co.uk. For one person with lower-level needs, a few visits a week at home costs a fraction of that. For one person needing full 24-hour support, live-in care £1,715 a week and a care home are in the same ballpark, and the choice is really about lifestyle: your own bed, your own kettle, your own garden birds, versus communal living.
For couples, the maths shifts dramatically, because care homes charge per person and live-in care for a couple is one carer and one bill. We have written a full, honest comparison in our guide to care homes versus home care.
Who else might help pay?
You may not have to fund everything yourself, and it costs nothing to check.
- Your council. If your savings and assets are below £23,250 (the English upper limit for 2026/27), Surrey County Council may contribute following a care needs assessment and a financial assessment. Their adult social care team is on 0300 200 1005.
- Attendance Allowance. £76.70 or £114.60 a week in 2026/27, for people over State Pension age who need help with personal care. It is not means-tested, your savings do not matter, and it is one of the most under-claimed benefits in Britain. Details at gov.uk.
- NHS Continuing Healthcare. If needs are primarily health-related, the NHS can fund care in full, at home, with no means test. Families are often told about this late or not at all. The NHS guide explains eligibility.
Funding forms are nobody’s idea of a good evening, which is why we sit with families and help complete them. That service is free, and it is explained on our funding support page. For impartial guidance on paying for care, MoneyHelper is government-backed and excellent.
What should you do next?
- Work out the gaps. Which parts of the day have become hard? Mornings and mealtimes are the usual suspects.
- Check the funding boxes. Attendance Allowance and a council needs assessment cost nothing to apply for.
- Get a real quote. Ours comes from a free home assessment, takes about an hour, and commits you to precisely nothing. If we think you don’t need us yet, we will say so.
Frequently asked questions.
Do you charge more at weekends or bank holidays?
No. Our rates are the same Monday to Sunday, all year. The rate quoted after your free assessment is the rate you pay, whether it is a Tuesday in March or Boxing Day.
What is the minimum visit you offer?
Thirty minutes, at £29.95. Short visits work well for medication prompts, welfare checks and meals. Many families combine a morning and an evening visit and adjust as needs change.
How quickly can home care start?
Usually within 24 to 48 hours of your free assessment. Hospital discharge is one of the most common reasons families call us, so we are built to move quickly when it matters.
Is the assessment really free, or is it a sales visit?
It is free, at your home, with no obligation. You get a written care plan and a clear quote. Plenty of families use it purely to understand their options, and we are genuinely fine with that.
If you would like to talk through what might help at home, call our Leatherhead team on 01372 386222 or book a free assessment. We will give you an honest answer, including “you don’t need us yet” if that is the truth.
Sources and references.
- Aims Homecare official price sheet, July 2026, published at aimshomecare.co.uk/pricing
- Homecare Association, Minimum Price for Homecare, England 2026/27, published 19 January 2026
- carehome.co.uk, Care home fees and costs, updated 30 July 2026
- GOV.UK, Attendance Allowance and apply for a needs assessment, 2026/27 rates
- NHS, NHS Continuing Healthcare
- Surrey County Council, adult social care, 0300 200 1005
- MoneyHelper, Long-term care guidance
Where to go next.
Or talk it through with a person: call 01372 386222 or book a free assessment.