Home Care Services: Travel
(asked on 10th June 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of low commissioning rates by local councils on incidence of non-payment for travel time between care visits for homecare workers.
We expect local authorities to pay sustainable fee rates that meet the costs of delivering care. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes negotiating fees individually with care providers, including in the homecare market, to achieve a sustainable balance of quality, effectiveness, and value for money.
Under the Care and Support Statutory Guidance, local authorities should assure themselves that providers are sufficiently remunerating staff to retain an effective workforce, including appropriate remuneration for any time spent travelling between appointments.
The Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund provided over £3 billion to local authorities for adult social care from 2023/24 to 2025/26. This was used by authorities, based on their areas’ local priorities for improvement, to build capacity and support market sustainability, including to increase fee rates paid to care providers.
As part of our monitoring of the grant conditions, and to understand fee rates more generally, local authorities are required to provide an annual return to the Department which includes data on the fee rates they pay care providers. The Government publishes this data annually, with the latest being available at the following link: