02/08/2026
I’ve just seen this image on another post, and I’ve seen many like it since the Prime Minister announced his plans to reform social care. It wasn’t the cropped image that prompted me to write this. It was the comments underneath it.
If this reflects your experience of working in or relying on social care, please share it. The more people who understand how the system really works, the harder it becomes to ignore the need for meaningful reform.
Every day I see posts claiming care providers charge £30 an hour, pay carers £15, and pocket the other £15 as profit.
I can tell you that’s one of the biggest myths in social care.
People are angry, and rightly so, about the cost of social care. Unfortunately, much of that anger is directed at care providers for what they charge. As someone who owns a home care company, I’d like to offer my two pence worth.
Councils pay £25-£30 per hour for care. Let me break down the cost of providing 1 hour of care for you….
Carers’ hourly rate: An average of around £15 per hour (taking into account weekday, weekend and bank holiday rates, plus enhanced pay for those with an NVQ or in managerial roles). Councils do not pay providers any extra towards weekends or bank holidays, yet carers still deserve enhanced pay for giving up evenings, weekends and Christmas with their own families to look after yours. Providers have to absorb that cost.
Travel time: Councils and private funders don’t pay this on top of the hourly rate, care providers have to pay for travelling between service users an average of £3 each 10-15 minute journey.
Petrol: We also reimburse carers for fuel, typically around £1-£2 between each service user.
By this point, almost two-thirds of the hourly fee has already gone towards employing the carer, but we’re not finished…
We then have holiday pay, training pay, pension contributions, National Insurance and, let’s not forget, statutory sick pay from day one rather than day four.
By this point, the true employment cost of that carer is already around £25 per hour. Many people happily pay similar rates for a cleaner or private tradesperson, yet regulated care comes with far greater responsibility and employment costs.
Ok so what do we spend that last £5 on? Is that profit or is it……
Insurance, CQC fees, office rent, electricity, office staff, gas, internet/landline, DBS checks, PPE, uniform, staff mobile phones, rota systems, HR costs, recruitment, the pool car and don’t forget the pint of milk in the fridge in case we have 5 minutes to have a cup of tea, I could go on and on.
For many providers, the true cost of delivering an hour of care is around £34 or more once all employment and operating costs are included. The government and councils don’t cover what it costs, so when all I hear is that care providers are greedy, it makes my blood boil. That’s why many providers rely on privately funded care to subsidise publicly funded care, just to keep services running. Others simply have no choice but to walk away from a sector they love.
So who makes up the shortfall when commissioners don’t fund care properly? Private-paying families do. Care providers do. Business owners do. I’ve sat beside many care providers who have talked about remortgaging their houses to cover their payroll. It’s heartbreaking.
In my area alone, Thames Valley Integrated Care Board reportedly owes care providers £44 million in unpaid Continuing Healthcare (CHC) invoices. I personally still have thousands of pounds outstanding from years ago.
So not only are providers underfunded, many are also left waiting months, and sometimes years, to be paid for care they’ve already delivered and paid their staff for.
I can’t speak for the care homes but believe me most of us care providers don’t do this work for the money, we work 100-hour weeks covering office admin, community sickness cover because when a carer phones in sick at 6am, we still have to provide the care. That often means paying overtime, sending office staff into the community, or covering the calls ourselves. Those costs don’t magically disappear because someone is unwell.
We also fund the 24-hour on-call service, not just to take those sickness calls but so there’s always someone available when your loved one needs help, even in the middle of the night, because we love them too. If we didn’t love them we would have walked away years ago for a 9-5 with 28 days of uninterrupted holiday every year.
Yes the social care system is in a mess, yes we do need change, and yes everyone who needs care should be able to access it without worrying about whether they can afford it but the government and councils know exactly how much it costs to provide that care so they won’t provide it. They expect providers like me and my team to bridge the funding gap, often at our own expense or family carers to do it for next to nothing!
Social care isn’t broken because care providers are making too much money. It’s broken because the people funding it know what good care costs, but too often don’t pay enough to cover it.
If you want carers to be paid properly, providers to stay open, and your loved ones to receive safe, compassionate care, the conversation shouldn’t be about what agencies charge. It should be about why a system that relies on some of the most dedicated people in the country is expected to deliver more for less every single year.
Most of us don’t do this because it’s lucrative. We do it because when someone needs help getting out of bed, taking their medication, or spending their last days with dignity, somebody has to be there.
We’re simply asking for a system that makes that possible.
Until then, please remember this: when you see an agency charging £30 plus an hour, you are not looking at £15 profit. You are looking at a care system being held together by thousands of providers doing everything they can to keep it going for your loved one.
Just to be clear, this post isn’t about saying care is affordable or that families aren’t struggling. They absolutely are. It’s about explaining why the hourly rate charged by providers isn’t the same as profit, and why the current funding model isn’t sustainable for families, carers or providers alike. I agree our carers should be paid more. Family carers, private carers and employed carers, i have been fighting for it for over a decade. That’s exactly why funding needs to reflect the true cost of providing care.
