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Scottish Community Care Statistics 2002
INTRODUCTION
This is the fourth in a series of annual publications presenting statistics on community care. It brings together a wealth of information across the whole range of health and social care services for adults in Scotland.
This publication looks at all types of services which come under the umbrella of community care and brings together information from the fields of health, social work and housing to present a complete picture of service provision in Scotland today. It examines changes over time and presents in-depth analysis for 2002, the latest year's figures.
In recent years there have been substantial changes in the way community care services are provided. Government policy has concentrated on moving away from institutional care towards supporting people in their own homes.
The analysis contained here is in part dictated by the statistical information currently available. As service provision moves away from institutional-based care towards tailoring individual packages of care to meet each client's needs, it becomes increasingly difficult to collect statistical information on the services received. Much of the information presented here is based on the traditional types of community care services i.e. based on the services provided rather than the people receiving services.
It is recognised that there is a need to change direction in the type of statistical information collected to better reflect the services currently provided. Work is ongoing within the Social Work Statistics Liaison Group (SWSLG) and the Social Care Data Standards project (SCDS) to improve the data collected in relation to Community Care and to ensure that the statistical information available accurately reflects the changing picture of community care provision today.
Whilst the shortcomings of the current information are recognised, it still has a useful role to play in informing and monitoring policy. It is planned that this publication will develop over time as information systems improve.
Dissemination Policy
Data collected by SEHD community care statistics branch are initially released in the form of short statistics releases providing summary data to get the information into the public domain at the earliest opportunity available.
This publication complements these releases by drawing together data from a number of sources and providing a more in-depth analysis and interpretation of the data.
More information on Community Care Statistics can be found on the Scottish Executive website at www.scotland.gov.uk/stats.
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