Scottish Care Homes Census

The Scottish Care Home Census data are collected on an annual basis via an electronic system called eForms which is maintained by the Care Inspectorate.

This document is part of a collection


Dear Care Home Manager,

This letter informs you of the arrangements for the 2023 Scottish Care Home Census.

Background

The Scottish Care Home Census has been running since 2003. Following significant focus in the latest year on wider system resilience and winter pressures, the timing of this data request is a little later than in previous years. However the Care Home Census continues to provide a rich and important source of information on care home provision in Scotland used by policy makers and care home providers. The latest care homes publication can be found on the Public Health Scotland (PHS) website.

2023 Care Home Census

The Care Home Census is a long running annual statistical collection which provides key financial information and resident level data for all funding types which is not available from other sources. This financial information and analysis informs a range of important considerations, including on capital limits for residential care, free personal and nursing care allowances and enables an understanding of the the costs and benefits of associated policy development. Resident level data is important in helping us understand more about the population living in care homes, and will be extremely valuable to inform continued planning for the National Care Service.

Given the importance of this data, the 2023 Care Home Census will open on 26 June 2023 and close 7 weeks later on 11 August 2023. This data will cover the year April 2022 to March 2023 (2022/23) only.      

The census form can be completed through the Care Inspectorate eForms system. You can log-in to the eForms system from 26 June 2023 on the Care Inpectorate website.

Changes to resident information

There are no changes to the information required since the previous census.

Help and guidance

If the guidance doesn’t answer your questions then you can contact the Care Inspectorate Contact Centre helpline on: 0345 600 9527.

Future of the Care Home Census

As you may know, Scottish Government, working in partnership with PHS and Care Inspectorate, are currently undertaking a review of the entire care home data landscape. The review is considering improvements around the content, quality and frequency of current data collections, along with alternative methods of data collection, and aims to ensure a coherent suite of data collections, minimise the burden on data providers and meet the existing and emerging needs of data users.  Rather than make changes to data collections in isolation, the medium and long term future of the Scottish Care Home Census, along with the other national care home data sources will be determined by the recommendations of the review.

The data mapping and initial engagement phases of the review are largely complete and we are now moving towards developing solutions and recommendations to address the feedback received. There are not many quick or easy ways to tackle some of the challenging and overarching issues raised in the review. However we are leading work to put in place appropriate governance structures, and link in all other related areas of work, to ensure there is co-ordinated and prioritised oversight across all related development workstreams. We plan to publish the report of the review in the coming months and subsequent work streams will take forward the review recommendations.

Thank you for your continued support and for completing the care home census return for 2022/23.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Grant
Head of Social Care Analysis Unit
Scottish Government

Contact

If the guidance doesn’t answer your questions then you can contact the Care Inspectorate Contact Centre helpline on: 0345 600 9527.
 

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