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Home care in the Dover council area

There are 30 home care services in the Dover council area registered with the Care Quality Commission. 14 carry a published CQC rating, and 12 of those are rated Good or Outstanding. The other 16 are unrated, which usually means they have not been inspected since registering rather than that anything is wrong. Privately arranged care is quoted by the hour, and the Homecare Association puts the minimum a provider must charge in 2026-27 at £34.42, or about £481.88 a week for two half-hour visits a day. Adult social care in the Dover council area is arranged by Kent, which paid providers £26.55 an hour in 2023-24, the 7th highest of 150 councils in England and 25% above the £21.19 median. Your council decides what care you are entitled to and what it pays towards, so this is the area that matters for funding.

Looking for the town rather than the council area? Home care in Dover (16 services) →

What home care costs in Dover

None of the 30 services in Dover have published their rates here yet. Ring two or three and ask. Most will quote over the phone.

For comparison, the Homecare Association puts the minimum sustainable price at £34.42 an hour for 2026-27. That covers careworker pay at the statutory minimum for all working time including travel, mileage, wage-related costs, and the minimum cost of running a compliant care business.

How home care pricing works →

What Kent pays for home care

£26.55an hour, 2023-24

The average hourly rate Kent paid independent agencies for home care it commissioned.

The Homecare Association puts the minimum sustainable price at £34.42 an hour, which is what an agency needs to charge to pay carers lawfully for travel time as well as time in your home. Those two figures cover different years (2023-24 against 2026-27), so treat the gap as indicative rather than exact. Wages have risen since, so the current gap is more likely wider than narrower.
This is not what you would pay. Councils buy in bulk on long contracts. Arranging care privately costs meaningfully more, and part of what a private client pays makes up the difference on the council’s rate.

NHS England, Adult Social Care Finance Return, 2023-24, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source · Compare every council

Narrow this down

30 services

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Dementia care (18)Elderly care (22)Physical disability care (23)Learning disability care (18)Mental health care (15)Sensory impairment care (13)Children's care (3)Substance misuse support (3)

Showing 25 to 30 of 30

Lauriem Ceaser Court (EC)

Deal, Kent

Newly registered, not yet rated

  • Caring for adults under 65 yrs
  • Dementia
  • Caring for adults over 65 yrs
  • +1 more
Hourly rate
not published
Pays carers for travel
not published
Shortest visit
not published
See this serviceCall them

Telegraph House

Deal, Kent

GoodCQC, May 2019

  • Caring for adults under 65 yrs
  • Learning disabilities
  • Physical disabilities
Hourly rate
not published
Pays carers for travel
not published
Shortest visit
not published
See this serviceCall them

Safe Choice Care

Deal, Kent

Requires improvementCQC, Sept 2022

  • Caring for adults under 65 yrs
  • Dementia
  • Caring for adults over 65 yrs
  • +1 more
Hourly rate
not published
Pays carers for travel
not published
Shortest visit
not published
See this serviceCall them

Priory Supported Living Kent

Dover, Kent

GoodCQC, Nov 2022one area rated lower

  • Caring for adults under 65 yrs
  • Learning disabilities
  • Mental health conditions
  • +1 more
Hourly rate
not published
Pays carers for travel
not published
Shortest visit
not published
See this serviceCall them

Councils bordering Dover

These authorities share a town with Dover, so if your search area crosses the boundary they are worth a look. What each pays for care differs.

Home care in Dover: questions people ask

How much does home care cost in the Dover council area?
None of the 30 services in the Dover council area publish a price, so you get a figure by ringing them: most quote by the hour after an assessment. The Homecare Association calculates that a provider needs to charge at least £34.42 an hour in 2026-27 to pay careworkers the statutory minimum for all their working time and run a compliant business. Two half-hour visits a day at that rate is roughly £481.88 a week. Kent paid £26.55 an hour for the care it commissioned in 2023-24.
Will the council pay for home care in the Dover council area?
Kent can arrange and fund care after a needs assessment, which is free and which anyone can request. What you contribute depends on a separate financial assessment. It paid providers an average of £26.55 an hour in 2023-24, the 7th highest of 150 councils in England. The Homecare Association's minimum sustainable price is £34.42 for 2026-27. Those are different years, so treat the pair as context rather than a like-for-like gap. What a council pays shapes which agencies will take council-funded work at all.
Which home care services in the Dover council area are rated best?
14 of the 30 services in the Dover council area carry a published CQC rating and 12 of those, 86%, are rated Good or Outstanding. 1 is rated Outstanding, the top grade: Inchwater Home Care. A rating describes the service on the day it was inspected, so check the report date as well as the word.
How do I choose a home care agency in the Dover council area?
Start with what the regulator publishes, then ask what it cannot tell you: who would actually visit, whether it is the same carer each time, what happens when that person is ill, and how long a call really lasts. 16 of the 30 services in the Dover council area carry no published verdict at all, so for those the questions are the only evidence you have. Every service here comes from the public register, and contacting one costs nothing: we take no fee and no commission.

Towns in Dover

Most people search by town rather than by council area.