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Introduction

The purpose of this Statistics Release is to present national figures on Direct Payments made by Scottish Local Authorities.

The latest figures apply to payments made during the period 1 ^st April 2005 to 31 ^st March 2006 under section 12B of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.

Direct Payments are for self-directed community care whereby eligible people purchase and manage for themselves some or all of the care they have been assessed as needing. They are one way of increasing the flexibility, choice, and control people have over the care they receive, so that they can live more independently in their communities.

Direct payments have been available to disabled people aged 18-64 since April 1997, and to disabled people aged 65 and over since July 2000. Since 21 December 2001 they have also been available to disabled 16 and 17 year olds and disabled parents for children's services. From 1 June 2003 it became a duty for local authorities to offer direct payments in place of providing services to all eligible disabled people aged 16 and over and to parents (or those with parental responsibility) for disabled children aged 15 and under.

The information is derived from returns made to the Scottish Executive by Scottish Local Authorities. The background information note on page 5 conveys further details relating to the collection of direct payments data. Charts are shown on pages 1 to 4 of the publication and data tables are shown in the appendix.

CHART 1:
Number of people receiving direct payments 2001-2006

Main Points

• The number of people in receipt of direct payments has increased from 207 in 2001 to 1,829 in the year to 31 March 2006.

Chart 1 shows the number of direct payment recipients each year.

• More than half of the people receiving direct payments in 2006 had a physical disability. Over one quarter of people who received direct payments were aged 65 or over, compared to only 7 per cent in 2001.

Chart 2 shows a summary of payments by age and client group.

• The value of payments has increased by almost £15.8 million, from £2.1 million in 2001 to over £17.9 million in 2006.

Chart 4, on page 2, shows the value of direct payments made each year.

• The average value of a direct payment was £13,100 per year.
• There were an average of 25 hours per week in direct payment packages.

CHART 2:
Number of people receiving direct payments, 2006

Across Scotland 1,829 people received direct payments in the year 2005/06, an increase of almost 400 (27 per cent) from the 2004/05 level.

More than half (52%) of these 1,829 people received direct payments due to a physical disability. Whilst the number of people in this client group has risen slightly, from 935 in 2004/05 to 950 in 2005/06, the proportion has fallen to its lowest level, largely due to the increasing number of people in the 'other' client group, 75 per cent of whom are aged 65 or over (see table 4).

Chart 2, above, and Table 4 in the appendix show a breakdown of the number of clients by age and client group in 2006.

CHART 3:
Percentage of people receiving direct payments by age, 2001-2006

The age profile of direct payment clients has changed since 2001, with a greater proportion of recipients now aged 65 or over. In 2001 only 7 per cent of recipients were in this age group, compared to 26 per cent of clients in 2006. This proportion has, however, fallen for the second year running from a high of 34 per cent in 2004.

In the year to 31 March 2006, 1,345 payments (74% of the total) were made to disabled people aged under 65. Direct payments have been available to disabled people aged 65 and over since July 2000 and 484 people in this age group (26% of the total) received payments in the latest year. From 1 April 2005 eligibility was extended to older people aged 65 and over assessed as needing care services due to frailty or old age. Overall, however, there has been only a small increase in the number of clients aged 65 and over since 2005.

Table 3 shows the age profile of clients from 2001 to 2006.

There were slightly more females than males in receipt of direct payments in 2006, 986 compared to 843.

CHART 4:
Value of direct payments, 2001-2006

The total value of direct payments has steadily increased from 2001, and £17.9 million was spent in the year to 31 March 2006. Most of this, around £10.6 million, was spent on people with physical disabilities but the proportion of the total value has fallen to its lowest level, 59 per cent.

CHART 5:
Average estimated value of a direct payment, 2001-2006

The average value of a direct payment has increased slightly for the second year running, after a decrease in the two preceding years, and stands at £9,800.

Table 5 shows the estimated average payment per client broken down by client group between 2001 and 2006.

CHART 6:
Average value of direct payment by client group, 2006

The estimated average values in chart 5 are simply calculated by dividing the total value of direct payments for the year by the number of people who received direct payments during the year.

In 2006, we collected direct payment information individually for each client and this allows us to make a more accurate measurement of the average cost, by taking into account the length of time each client received payments during the year.

Chart 6 shows that the average annual value of a direct payment received in 2006 was £13,100 per client. Those who received a direct payment due to a physical disability received the highest average payment (£14,200) and those with mental health problems received the lowest (£10,400).

CHART 7:
Average hours in a direct payment by client group, 2006

The number of weekly hours in direct payment packages was collected for the first time in 2005/06. Due to collection difficulties this information was available for 1,563 of the 1,829 clients (85 per cent).

On average there were 25 hours per week in a direct payment package in 2005/06. This varied slightly between client groups with an average of 21 hours per week in direct payment packages for people with learning disabilities and 28 hours per week in those for people with physical disabilities.

CHART 8:
Average hours in a direct payment by age group, 2006

The average number of weekly hours in a direct payment package also varied between age groups. Clients aged under 16 had an average of 11 hours per week in their direct payments package whilst those aged 35-49 had an average of 34 hours per week.

CHART 9:
Distribution of length of direct payments, 2006

Of the direct payments which were ongoing on 31 March 2006, 37 per cent had been in place for a year or less. A further 30 per cent had been going for over 1 year but less than 2 years and six per cent of payments had been in place for over 5 years.

CHART 10:
Direct payments starting and ending in 2005-06 by month

Of the 1,829 clients who received direct payments during 2005/06, 1,125 were receiving payments on 01 April 2005. During the year, a further 704 clients started receiving direct payments whilst 262 ceased to receive them. This meant that, on 31 March 2006, 1,567 people were receiving direct payments.

Chart 10 shows the month in which new direct payments began and in which direct payments ended. Sixty two per cent of new direct payments began between April and September 2005 with 104 (15 per cent) beginning in April 2005. Twelve per cent of those direct payments that ended did so in July 2005.

Details of the number of new direct payments and the number that ended in 2005/06, split by local authority, are available in table 7.

Local Authorities were asked to provide details of the type of direct payment provision for the first time in 2005/06. All but two local authorities were able to provide data for at least some clients. Amongst the remaining 30 local authorities data was provided for 1,424 clients. This equates to 78 per cent of all clients.

Each client could have more than 1 type of direct payment provision so percentages do not add up to 100.

Sixty-eight per cent of clients received direct payments for personal care and 36 per cent received them for social, educational or recreational activities.

Details of the type of direct payment provision can be found in table 8.

Similarly, 29 local authorities provided data on the type of care delivery - whether the direct payment package is delivered by personal assistants, through a contract with a service provider or a combination of both.

This data was provided for 78 per cent of clients. Again, each client could have more than 1 type of care delivery so percentages do not add up to 100. Sixty-three per cent of these had their package delivered by personal assistants employed directly by the service user and 32 per cent had it delivered through a contract with a service provider.

Details of the type of care delivery can be found in table 9.

Local Authority Analysis

All Local Authorities made direct payments during the year to 31 March 2006.

Fife council made the most payments (14 per cent of the Scotland total) and these payments amounted to over £2 million. However the City of Edinburgh contributed the greatest value overall, at over £2.5 million (14 per cent of the total amount paid). Eilean Siar had the smallest number of clients with five receiving payments.

All but three Local Authorities made more direct payments in 2006 than in the previous year. Eilean Siar made 2 fewer whilst East Ayrshire and North Lanarkshire made the same number.

The average value of a payment increased in 20 of 32 Local Authorities - Glasgow City saw the largest increase from an average of £7,000 per client in 2005 to £11,400 in the latest year.

Chart 12 and Table 10 show that Orkney has the largest rate of direct payment clients per 10,000 of population (23.5). Although Fife has most clients it has the sixth largest rate per population.

Tables 1 and 2 show the number and value of direct payments made in 2001-2006 by client group and local authority.

CHART 11:
Number of people receiving direct payments, 2006

CHART 12:
Rates of clients per 10,000 population, 2006

Background information on the Direct Payments Survey, 2006

The Direct Payments survey began in 2001 and collects information on Direct Payments from all Local Authorities in Scotland.

The format of the survey was changed in 2006 to a person based return. This may have resulted in some inconsistency compared to previous years. The new survey asks for gender, date of birth, client group, value of direct payment throughout the year, weekly hours in the direct payment package, type of direct payment provision and type of care delivery along with a number of other variables.

The new form has allowed for more accurate calculation of average direct payment values. These are calculated by determining for how many days each person received a direct payment in 2005/06. The value of the direct payment is then divided by this number of days and the result is multiplied by 365 to estimate the value of a direct payment if the had client received it throughout the entire year. This can then be averaged to allow more accurate comparisons between, for example, client groups.

The infonote contains average direct payment values calculated using both methods to allow for the continuation of existing time series.

All 32 local authorities provided information. However, as this was the first time the survey had run in this format, a number of Local Authorities had difficulty providing some of the data.

Some column totals in the tables in this document may not exactly equal the sum of their component parts due to the effects of rounding.

Further Information

Further details and analysis of the data presented in this Statistics Release are available on request from the address below. The Statistics Release is also available on the Internet by accessing the Scottish Executive web site ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats).

Contact: Steven Gillespie
Tel: 0131 244 3777
Fax: 0131 244 5427
E-mail SWstat@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

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