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Home care services Scotland 2008
25/11/2008
Scotland's Chief Statistician today published Home care services, Scotland 2008. This statistics release presents information on home care services provided or purchased by local authorities in Scotland. All local authorities in Scotland provide home care services which give people the support, practical help and personal care that they need to live as independently as possible in the community.
Some of the notable statistics included in the report are:
- In the first week of April 2008, there were 68,759 home care clients. The number of home care clients has fallen this year after an increase in clients each year between 2002 and 2005 and a levelling off in 2006 and 2007.
- The number of hours of home care provided to clients continues to increase, by around 1 per cent over the latest year to over 651,000 hours.
- The average hours received by each client in a week continues to show a steady increase from 5.1 in 1998 to 9.8 in 2008.
- The number of older people (aged 65 and over) receiving an intensive service (more than 10 hours per week) was just over 18 clients per 1000 population as at April 2008. This has steadily been rising since 1998 (except between 2005 and 2006 were it remained at around 17 clients per 1000 population).
- Local Authorities increasingly are purchasing home care services from the private and voluntary sector rather than providing services themselves. There has been a steady decline in hours of home care provided solely from LA providers from 89 per cent in 1998 to 52 per cent in 2008.
- Around 30 per cent of all clients received a service of 10 hours or more per week. This has increased steadily from 11 per cent in 1998.