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2. Main points
2.1 In 2005-06, 163,758 individuals were assisted through Supporting People funding, 4% fewer than reported for 2004-05 (170,584). This drop may be due in part to a number of factors, including changes in the way that services are provided, changes in local authorities' information systems and improvements in data collection methods. See page 5 for further details.
2.2 Clients receiving support were mainly older people (49%), homeless or rough sleepers (20%), and people with a physical disability or illness (10%) ( Table 2). Older people are the majority group for 24 local authorities and homeless people for a further 5 local authorities ( Table 8).
2.3 59% of clients are female and 52% are aged 65 or over. Only 11% of clients are aged 25 or under ( Table 9).
2.4 Overall, 4% of the adult population received support in 2005-06. This proportion rises to 13% for people aged 75-84, and to 29% for those aged 85 and over ( Table 10). The local authorities with the highest reported proportions of clients per head of population aged 16 and over were West Dunbartonshire (9%), Angus (8%) and West Lothian (7%). The lowest proportions were found in Orkney, Eilean Siar, and Shetland (all at 1%) ( Table 1).
2.5 The largest providers of support were local authority social work departments (38%), local authority housing (21%), and voluntary organisations (20%). Registered social landlords provided 16% of support ( Table 5).
2.6 36% of clients received 1-4 hours per week of floating support and 30% received continuous accommodation linked support, which includes 24 hour warden services and community alarms. ( Table 4).
2.7 For the majority of clients (53%) the support received is permanent. Only 3% of clients required less than one month of support ( Table 6).
2.8 Over half of all clients received support in mainstream housing (52%), with a further 25% in sheltered housing ( Table 7).
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