Home care is when a professional care assistant provides support to you or your loved one in your home. This can be a way of ensuring your loved one receives the care they need in a familiar environment. With the right home care, your loved one can benefit from experienced and well-trained support with minimal disruption to their daily life.
Home care can be provided as either visiting care or live-in care and can have varying costs depending on your needs. In this article, we’ll explore the different types of home care available and what they may cost in Bournemouth.
For personalised advice, contact our team at Bluebird Care today.
What Impacts Cost?
Different factors can impact the overall costs of your home care, regardless of the type. For instance, if your loved one has complex needs, your care support may be more expensive.
Care that requires higher skilled and experienced care assistants will cost more, as they have a higher level of training and can provide more intensive or specific care services. Where care is required throughout the night, there is usually a higher cost.
Similarly, if you have more than one loved one requiring care, costs will likely be more expensive. For example, where a live-in care assistant supports a couple, they will have more responsibilities and duties and the cost will reflect this.
Understanding your unique needs can help you to understand what you may require from care and determine the potential costs.
Visiting Care
Visiting care is often used for people with less complex needs or requires companionship. It is when a care assistant has set visits and hours supporting your loved one throughout the day or week. Visiting care can be customised to your preferences and needs.
For instance, you may only need an hour or so of support meal prepping a week. Or perhaps half an hour of support every day, to help your loved one get out of bed in the morning. Visiting care can also be organised to occur multiple times throughout the day if that is needed.
This can help your loved one continue living at home, without the additional costs of around-the-clock support. As such, visiting care is often a preferred option for people seeking support at home.
Live-In Care
Live-in Care is when your chosen care expert lives with your loved one at home, providing 24-hour support. This can be very beneficial to people who need constant or complex support throughout the day. Likewise, it can help your loved one achieve more progress with their health and mental well-being as they are consistently supported throughout the week
This level of support is generally more comprehensive than visiting care. As such as opposed to hourly rates, live-in care costs are generally calculated as weekly costs.
Live In Care Costs
While costs will vary based on your needs, TrustedCare has averaged live-in care across Britain to be £1,309 a week. Many Bournemouth services provide Live-in care support with costs ranging between £900 to £1400 or more per week.
Home Care Funding Options
While paying for home care can be daunting several funding options may be available to you depending on your eligibility.
Nation-wide Funding
Across the UK funding support is available from your local authorities based on your needs and financial circumstances. To benefit from this support you must complete a financial assessment that finds your combined savings to total less than £23,250.
Furthermore, there is currently a cap on care costs across the country. In 2025, they are implementing a new cap of £86,000 so that no one will have to pay more than that in regards to care in their lifetime.
Navigating Options
When considering care funding options, it’s important to consider that care choices and decision-making options can be reduced. For instance, if you are approved for funding you can either choose to have the council organise your care and provide a bill, or accept direct payments which means you have the choice of who provides your care, and what that looks like, and can top up with your own funds if your chosen care exceeds the minimum support that you have been assessed as needing.
Local authorities can assess you to determine your number of visits per day, allowing you to access an equivalent payment. With this, you may not be able to choose your preferred provider.
Likewise, it’s important to consider whether you need short-term or long-term support. As there may be other funding options available depending on your circumstances and needs.
For The Right Home Care Support
Home care can help your loved one get the support they need from the comfort of their own home. Whether your loved one has complex needs or needs tailored support, our team is here to help.
At Bluebird Care, we can help you navigate home care and find the right support that works with your budget. Contact us to get started.
