Commissioned Home Care Worker Pay Assurance
Case reference FOI2026/00482
Received 25 February 2026
Published 23 March 2026
Request
Please provide recorded information held by the council, created or relied upon within the last three financial years, which demonstrates how the council assures itself, in practice, that commissioned domiciliary care providers pay care workers for all working time. For the purposes of this request, “all working time” includes (but is not limited to):
• Payment for direct contact time with service users
• Payment for travel time between care visits
• Payment for gaps of less than 60 minutes between care visits
• Payment for mileage, including whether contracts specify a mileage rate or reimbursement requirement The request seeks recorded information held by the council.
This may include, but is not limited to:
• Contractual clauses or schedules relating to pay, working time, or reimbursement of expenses
• Monitoring, auditing, or compliance reports
• Payroll sampling, spot checks, or verification exercises (redacted as necessary)
• Records of breaches, enforcement actions, or improvement plans
• Provider declarations or self-certifications relied upon as evidence
• Records showing that compliance is assured through reliance on HMRC enforcement or other external bodies
• Any other documentation used by the council to verify compliance in practice This request does not seek policy statements or general explanations.
It seeks recorded information held by the council. Clarification If the council does not hold recorded information for any of the above elements, please explicitly confirm this and state whether:
a) The council does not monitor these matters in practice;
b) Monitoring occurs but no records are retained;
c) The council relies solely on provider declarations or contractual self-certification; or
d) The council relies on HMRC or another external enforcement body and holds no direct verification records.
Response
Please provide recorded information held by the council, created or relied upon within the last three financial years, which demonstrates how the council assures itself, in practice, that commissioned domiciliary care providers pay care workers for all working time.
For the purposes of this request, “all working time” includes (but is not limited to):
• Payment for direct contact time with service users
• Payment for travel time between care visits
• Payment for gaps of less than 60 minutes between care visits
• Payment for mileage, including whether contracts specify a mileage rate or reimbursement requirement
The request seeks recorded information held by the council.
This may include, but is not limited to:
• Contractual clauses or schedules relating to pay, working time, or reimbursement of expenses
• Monitoring, auditing, or compliance reports
• Payroll sampling, spot checks, or verification exercises (redacted as necessary)
• Records of breaches, enforcement actions, or improvement plans
• Provider declarations or self-certifications relied upon as evidence
• Records showing that compliance is assured through reliance on HMRC enforcement or other external bodies
• Any other documentation used by the council to verify compliance in practice
This request does not seek policy statements or general explanations.
It seeks recorded information held by the council.
Clarification
If the council does not hold recorded information for any of the above elements, please explicitly confirm this and state whether:
a) The council does not monitor these matters in practice;
b) Monitoring occurs but no records are retained;
c) The council relies solely on provider declarations or contractual self-certification; or
d) The council relies on HMRC or another external enforcement body and holds no direct verification records.
A: Herefordshire Council, Ageing Well Commissioning Team, commission domiciliary care providers via block framework agreements that are paid either rural or urban hourly rates, with packages of care advertised via our ebrokerage portal. We do not pay travel time or mileage via this commissioned framework agreement as that has been factored in, when determining the hourly rates set. As with any awarded contract, due diligence is conducted to satisfy financial viability and legal compliance such as Public Liability Insurance and Employers Liability. We contract manage our commissioned care providers via online and in person methods, requesting data as is required for ensuring satisfactory service delivery. Services delivering care are required to be registered with the CQC and would also be subject of Herefordshire Council Quality Assurance visits, where providers complete a self assessment check which is audited by the QA team, which does, in relation to the thematic areas being raised ask ‘is travel time incorporated into funded hours’ which isn’t necessarily the recording of ‘are you paying staff to travel’.
Any off-framework contracting is conducted via Low Value Agreement (LVA) contracting, whereupon broker would determine rates accordingly with each provider. At this point, providers will be expected to produce the ‘rate’ of care factoring in the associated costs they need to deliver it fully. Dependent on the circumstances for each LVA, a provider, may have produced a more explicit cost breakdown, as evidence of why they are seeking that hourly rate from HC that may be excessive due to rural mileage etc.
The conditions of the employment contract between the worker and the care agency will all differ. Any concerns could be flagged via a number of mechanisms such as: direct to commissioner, CQC, whistleblowing policy, etc and would be investigated accordingly.
Documents
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