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4. Notes And Data Issues
General Issues
This is the fourth year of the data collection and although the quality of the data continues to improve, some local authorities still have difficulty in providing all of the information requested. Where this occurs, estimates have been made and these have been described in the footnotes to the web tables and in these notes below.
The Scottish Government requests information on the numbers of clients supported during the year. However, the information management systems in some local authorities are designed to produce statistics on the number of services provided, and client-based information cannot be extracted. This can result in double counting of clients who receive more than one service, who receive more than one period of support, or whose support needs change during the course of the year. Efforts have been made to estimate the extent of the double counting and to eliminate it as far as possible, but some local authorities have been unable to completely remove it. Known double counting is highlighted in the footnotes to the web tables.
The inclusion of clients receiving community alarms causes problems for a number of local authorities, and results in inconsistency of data recording between authorities and between years. The way that the information is held means that sometimes it is not possible for the authority to determine whether these clients receive other support services in addition to receiving a community alarm. Some authorities double count these clients, while others remove alarm users from their return. For 2006-07 local authorities were specifically asked about the numbers of clients benefitting from a community alarm and/or warden service, and these figures are shown separately.
The information provided by some local authorities is not yet consistent over time, which means that apparent changes between years should be interpreted with caution. In 2006-07 there was a reported overall increase in client numbers of 8%, with some large changes in individual local authorities. For example, Clackmannanshire record an apparent 207% increase in client numbers, and Argyll & Bute 31%. However, such changes can be at least partially explained by a number of factors:
- changes in the way that services are provided
- improvements to data collection methods as authorities become more familiar with the information required
More information about issues specific to individual local authorities is shown in the following section.
Local Authority Information
The data presented in the web tables refer to financial years, apart from Dundee, where data is a snapshot at March 2007.
Particular care should be taken interpreting results for the following local authorities:
- Argyll & Bute have provided more detailed information for 2006-07 which has enabled the extent of double counting to be more accurately determined than in previous years. This may be partially responsible for the increase in client numbers in 2006-07.
- Clackmannanshire have introduced new services in 2006-07 (social services and occupational therapy) for support hours for adult care clients, particularly for low - medium support. This is a genuine increase in clients and accounts for over half of the 2,000 increase. Most of the remaining increase in clients can be attributed to better information being received on the turnover of homeless clients, which was found to be higher than previously thought.
- Dundee were unable to provide an age, gender or ethnicity breakdown for 2006-07. Figures have been estimated using Scotland proportions.
- East Ayrshire have only included clients who can be positively identified as separate individuals so community alarm users have been excluded from the 2006-07 client numbers. This has caused an apparent decrease in client numbers between 2005-06 and 2006-07. North Lanarkshire have excluded their community alarm users in all years of data for similar reasons.
- East Dunbartonshire have received more accurate data in 2006-07 for the 'homeless' and 'vulnerable due to young age' client groups, where previously this information was not available from providers. This is the main cause of the apparent 26% increase in client numbers between 2005-06 and 2006-07.
- Despite efforts to remove double counting in the client totals, some might still remain in East Lothian, Edinburgh, Fife, Inverclyde and Glasgow, for one or more of the following reasons:
- client information held on more than one database
- databases designed to record service provision not clients
- information supplied by individual service providers.
- Renfrewshire was unable to provide data for 2006-07. In most tables, 2005-06 data were used to estimate 2006-07 Scotland totals, but the local authority rows have been marked as 'not available'.
- North Ayrshire client numbers have increased in 2006-07 partly because of improved monitoring of homelessness.
- West Lothian council were unable to provide a breakdown of support hours in 2006-07. Support hours were estimated using Scotland proportions.
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