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Introduction

The purpose of this Statistics Release is to present the latest national figures for 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.

All figures relate to the week ending 31 March 2007 and are provisional and, as such, may be subject to change. The final figures will be published in future publications.

Main points

• In the week ending 31 ^st March 2007, there were 70,710 home care clients. The number of home care clients has levelled off in the last two years after an increase in clients each year since 2002 (Chart 1).
• The number of hours of home care provided to clients continues to increase, by around 7 per cent over the latest year to over 645,000 hours (Chart 1).
• The average hours received by each client in a week continues to show a steady increase from 5.1 in 1998 to 9.1 in 2007 (Chart 2).
• The number of older people (aged 65 and over) receiving an intensive service (more than 10 hours per week) was around 18 clients per 1000 population as at March 2007. This has steadily been rising since 1998 (Chart 3).
• 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 53 per cent in 2007 (Chart 5).
• Around 28 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 (Chart 6).

Chart 1: Home Care Clients and Hours Provided, 1998- 2007

The groups of people who used home care services in 2007 are similar to last year: -

• 80 per cent of clients were aged 65 years and over.
• 67 per cent were female and 33 per cent were male
• Almost four-fifths (78 per cent) of clients had physical disabilities (including frailty associated with ageing).
• 61% of people using the service lived alone compared to 66% as at March 2006.

Home Care Services

There was an estimated 645,041 hours of service provided to 70,710 clients in 2007. The number of clients dropped from 79,294 in 1998 to 64,546 in 2002, it then increased to 71,094 in 2005 and has fallen slightly to 70,710 in 2007 (see Chart 1). The number of client hours has increased by 72 per cent since 1999. In 1999 clients received, on average, 5.1 hours of home care per week. This has risen steadily to 9.1 hours for 2007 (See Annex 2 and Chart 2).

Chart 2: Average Number of Hours Provided per Client, 1998-2007

In 2005, the data collection was refined to collect information on older people receiving 10+ hours per week. Previously these figures were estimated.

The estimated number of older people receiving intensive home care (more than 10 hours per week) increased each year between 1998 and 2005 but decreased by less than 1 per cent (102 clients) between 2005 and 2006 before increasing again in 2007. In 2007 there were 17.5 clients per 1,000 population aged 65 or over that received intensive home care - compared with 16.8 in 2006 and 9.0 in 1998 (See Annex 2).

Chart 3: Clients aged 65+ receiving 10 hours + per 1,000 population aged 65+, 1998-2007

Of the estimated 70,710 clients who received a home care service provided or purchased by a local authority in 2007, 27 per cent received at least part of their home care service from a private or voluntary provider - compared to only 6 per cent in 1998 (Table 1, Annex 5).

Chart 4: Proportion of Home Care Clients by Provider, 1998-2007

Chart 5: Proportion of the Hours of Home Care Service by Provider, 1998 - 2007

The average number of contact hours per client for those receiving local authority provided services only was 6.7 hours per week, compared to 16.1 hours for those receiving home care from a private or voluntary provider only (See Table 1).

Table 1: Number of Home Care Clients and Hours Provided / Purchased by Provider of Service, 2007

Source: Home Care Statistical Return H1

224,853 hours were provided to clients receiving home care services solely from the private or voluntary sector. This has increased by 30 per cent since 2005 when 173,330 hours were provided.

Additionally, 76,683 hours (12 per cent) were provided by some combination of local authority, private and voluntary provision (See Table 1 & Chart 5).

The proportion of service provided solely by local authorities has been decreasing steadily from 89 per cent in 1998 to 53 per cent in 2007. The majority of this decrease is due to the increase in service provided or purchased solely from the voluntary and private sectors (see Annex 5).

Profile of Clients Receiving Home Care Services

Approximately 78 per cent of clients receiving home care services provided or purchased by local authorities were people with physical disabilities (including frailty associated with ageing). An estimated 67 per cent of clients were female and 33 per cent were male. An estimated 80 per cent of all clients were aged 65 years or over (See Table 2).

Table 2: Age, Client Group and Gender of Clients Receiving Home Care Services, 2007

Source: Home Care Statistical Return H1

Approximately 61 per cent of clients in receipt of a home care service were living alone; an additional 5 per cent were living in households where 2 or more people received the service (See Table 3).

Table 3: Living Arrangements of Clients Receiving Home Care Services, 2007

Source: Home Care Statistical Return H1

Level of Home Care Services Provided

Just over a quarter of clients of home care services (28 per cent) received at least 10 hours of service provided or purchased by a local authority in 2007. This percentage has gradually increased over the last 9 years from 11 per cent in 1998 to 28 per cent in 2007. The number of clients receiving less than 4 hours has decreased over the same period from 60 per cent to 42 per cent.

In 2007, 19 per cent of under 65's received 20 hours or more home care a week compared with 5 per cent of over 65's. This is a similar picture to 2005 when the data was first collected for the different age groups.

Table 4: Number of Home Care Clients by Level of Service Received, 2007

Source: Home Care Statistical Return H1

Chart 6 Level of Service 1998-2007

People aged 65 and over account for 88 per cent of people receiving less than 1 hour of home care, compared to 20 per cent of people receiving 50 hours or over and 80 per cent of all people receiving home care. (see chart 7)

Chart 7: Ratio of people aged 65 and over to people aged under 65 by level of service, 2007

Background Information on the Collection of Home Care Services

A revised home care statistical collection was introduced in 1998. Local authorities are asked to provide details of all home care services provided by their own staff, and in addition, services bought in from other local authorities, and private / voluntary organisations. Information on client age, for level and type of service has been collected since 2005.

Data were collected with respect to the week ending 31 March 2007.

A return was received from each local authority in Scotland. A small amount of information had to be estimated for some local authorities. Four local authorities had difficulty in providing information on the living arrangements of the clients. Care should therefore be taken when interpreting figures in this area of provision as a small amount of data has been estimated.

Total hours may not add up to the sum of components due to rounding.

This year for the first time, East Dunbartonshire have included clients who receive home care as part of 'intensive support' through 'supported accommodation' and 'group living' packages. Therefore, East Dunbartonshire's figures are not directly comparable with previous year's figures.

More detailed tables on home care services are available from our website at:
www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/Data/HomeCare

Further Information

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

Information at a disaggregate local authority level showing number of clients receiving a service and number of hours service provided or purchased is shown in annex 1 of this Statistics Release.

Contact: Steven Gillespie
Tel: 0131 244 3777
E-mail: SWStat@scotland.gov.uk

This statistics release was published on 18 ^th December 2007.

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