How much care costs in Sandwell

What care usually costs in Sandwell

The gap between two agencies is often bigger than the gap between regions. Ask for complete price lists, with weekend and bank holiday charges. The Homecare Association puts the minimum sustainable price for council-funded home care in England at £34.42 an hour for 2026/27. The spread around these averages is wide. What a home charges turns on the room, the care level and whether nursing is part of it. Self-funders tend to be charged more than councils for the same room.

Getting an accurate price

• Per-hour rates on weekdays, in the evening, at weekends and on bank holidays.
• The minimum length of a call, and whether travel is charged.
• For a home: everything the weekly price covers, and how often it goes up.

Collect these in writing, run the totals through the care cost calculator tool, then check your contribution with What will I pay?

Quality of care services in Sandwell

89 home care agencies and 94 care homes are registered with CQC in Sandwell. Of those rated, 75% of agencies are Good or Outstanding (behind the England figure of 88%) and 73% of care homes (behind England's 83%). 37 agencies and 15 care homes have not been rated yet.

Care in Sandwell: the local figures

£33.50 an hour: that is our estimate of a typical private fee for an hour of home care locally (West Midlands: £33.50; England: £33.50). It is not a quote. By CQC registrations, HC-One No.5 Limited and The Sandwell Community Caring Trust are the joint largest operators in Sandwell (5 services each).

Our modelled typical self-funder price for a care home bed in Sandwell is £1,300 a week, compared with £1,340 regionally and £1,520 nationally. Nursing places run at about £1,540, residential at about £1,300. There are 94 care homes in Sandwell, and 73% of the 79 with a rating are Good or Outstanding (lower than England's 83%). 26 of them (28%) are registered as nursing homes.

Outstanding: 0. Requires improvement or Inadequate: 21, or 27% of rated care homes in Sandwell; the England share is 17%. 2,187 care home beds are registered across 94 homes in Sandwell, a median of 10 beds per home.

Figures: CQC register, Oct 2026; fees: Care Fees and Quality Index, Q4 2026.

Rates paid by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

What the council has published: 2026/27: home care £22.12 per hour; OP residential £775.11 per week; OP nursing £775.11 per week (excl. FNC), OPMH nursing £832.79 (excl. FNC) (source).

• Council rates tend to sit below self-funder prices.
• Want a dearer home than a council-funded place covers? The difference can be paid as a third-party top-up, generally by family.