How much does home care cost in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area?

None of the 130 services in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 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. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole paid £23.90 an hour for the care it commissioned in 2023-24.

Home care in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area

There are 130 home care services in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area registered with the Care Quality Commission. 51 carry a published CQC rating, and 51 of those are rated Good or Outstanding. The other 79 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. The council paid providers £23.90 an hour in 2023-24, the 27th highest of 150 councils in England and 13% 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.

What home care costs in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

None of the 130 services in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 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 Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole pays for home care

£23.90an hour, 2023-24

The average hourly rate Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 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

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Dana Care

Poole, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

GoodCQC, May 2020

Caring for adults over 65 yrs

Hourly rate: not published
Pays carers for travel: not published
Shortest visit: not published

Home care in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area

What home care costs in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

What Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole pays for home care

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