Health and social care analysis

Introduction

Adult support and protection

Adult support and protection annual data was released on the 9th May 2023 for the first time. These Scottish national data will include: referrals; investigations (type of harm and location of harm breakdowns); case conferences; large scale investigations and protection orders as well as some demographic information.

• Adult Support and Protection Scotland: April 2019 to March 2022

Health and care surveys

We run several surveys which straddle the boundary between health and social care.

Scottish Health Survey

The Scottish Health Survey provides a detailed picture of the health of the Scottish population in private households and is designed to make a major contribution to the monitoring of health in Scotland.

Scottish Care Experience Survey Programme

The Scottish Care Experience Survey Programme is a suite of national surveys which aim to provide local and national information on the quality of health and care services from the perspective of those using them. The surveys allow local health and care providers to compare with other areas of Scotland and to track progress in improving the experiences of people using their services.

• The Health & Care Experience Survey: covers GP services, Out of Hours care, social care and caring responsibilities
• The Inpatient Experience Survey: covers all aspects of inpatient stays from admission to care at home after discharge
• The Maternity Care Survey: covers postnatal, antenatal and hospital-based maternity care
• The Scottish Cancer Patient Experience Survey: covers a range of cancer care including diagnosis, support during treatment and inpatient/outpatient care

Free personal and nursing care

Free personal and nursing care (FPNC) was introduced by the Scottish Government in 2002 to people aged 65 and over. In April 2019, Frank’s law extended the provision of FPNC payments to all adults.

Data are collected in the Scottish Government's quarterly monitoring return, then published annually in our Free Personal and Nursing Care publication. In each publication, information is included on the amount spent on FPNC payments and the number of people receiving these payments either in their own home or in care homes. Data are also published on the average weekly number of hours of personal care provided to people in their own home.

Find publications dating back to 2010-11 in the Free Personal and Nursing Care collection.

Eligibility criteria and waiting times

Eligibility criteria and waiting times data is collected as part of the Scottish Government Quarterly Monitoring Return. Eligibility criteria categories define the severity of need for care, whilst waiting times report on the time frames for assessment and delivery of care.

Data have been collected from 2010 to 2023, and the last quarter of each financial year is reported on. Until 2018, data was published as data tables only, but to improve accessibility and understanding of the data, the first publication was produced alongside the data in 2021 (detailing data from 2012 to 2021). However, many local authorities have been reporting difficulty in providing the information asked for in this data collection.

This data collection has therefore been paused while we explore alternative methods of obtaining higher quality information on eligibility criteria and the length of time people wait for services. Having more robust evidence on how social care support service criteria are met and the waiting times people face, will inform policy development and support improved outcomes for those in need of social care.

• Social care: eligibility criteria and waiting times Scotland 2022-2023
• Social Care Eligibility Criteria And Waiting Times, Scotland, 2020-21
• Eligibility criteria and waiting times

Carers Census

The Carers Census collects a variety of information on unpaid carers being supported by Local Authorities and Carer Centres across Scotland. This information is being collected in part to help monitor the implementation of the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016, which came into force on 1st April 2018. 

Scotland's Carers

The Scotland's Carers publication brings together statistical analysis from sources including Scotland's Census and the Scottish Health Survey, as well as research of caring to give a picture of carers' health, wellbeing, employment and demographic information.

Mental health

• Results of the annual Mental Health Inpatient Census
• A selection of social research reports relating to mental health in Scotland

Social care expenditure data

The Local Financial Returns (LFRs) are a series of detailed returns that collect final, audited expenditure figures across all services that local authorities provide. The data collected in the LFRs is then published as part of the annual Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics (SLGFS) publication, classed as National Statistics. 

Up to and including 2020/21, there was a single return sheet (LFR 03) for all social work expenditure data, which was the main source of social care expenditure data available in Scotland. A detailed review of LFR 03 was undertaken before the issue of the 2021/22 LFRs, which identified data quality concerns with some of the ‘Additional Information’ captured in LFR 03. As a result, following consultation, some changes were made to the 2021/22 LFR 03 collection. These changes included removing information on expenditure by client group, and transferring this to a new separate data collection, to be known as LFR SC. Unlike LFR 03, LFR SC data is not classed as National Statistics and is not included in the SLGFS publication.

Despite these changes, LFR 03 remains the main source of expenditure data on social care in Scotland, with only the more detailed client group data collected and published as LFR SC.

• LFR data (workbooks) and SLGFS publication
• LFR SC (2022/23)
• LFR SC (2021/22)

Interim care placement uptake

On 10 January 2023 The Scottish Government made funding available to Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) to subsidise the purchase of additional interim care facilities. This is to enhance the existing provision from HSCPs. The figures presented show the uptake of this offer and the total number of people in interim care beds.

• Interim care placement uptake

National performance indicators and data linkage

Information on NHS indicators can be found on the ISD Scotland website:

• Delayed Discharge
• Emergency Admissions
• End of Life Care
• Care Homes Census
• QOF Register Data:

For Population Projections, please see the National Records of Scotland website

Information related to health and community care data linkage is linked below.

• Health & Community Care: data linkage

Information for data suppliers

• Information for data suppliers

Discontinued publications

A number of publications relating to health and social care, including 'Self-directed support, Scotland', 'Social care services', 'Respite care Scotland', and 'Registered blind and partially sighted persons, Scotland' are no longer published. Find these on our page of Discontinued Publications.

Older publications (2010 and previously) related to social care are available in our website archive.

Data improvements

All statistics need to be regularly updated to remain relevant and useful to data users, whilst not causing undue burden on data providers. A review of adult social care statistics in Scotland by the Office of Statistics Regulation (OSR) highlighted a number of issues with the current care home evidence base and provided a number of recommendations for improvement.

Care Home Data Review 

The Care Home Data Review (CHDR) is a multi-agency review of the care home data landscape and aims to ensure a coherent suite of data collections, reduce the burden on data providers and provide quality and insightful data to meet the existing and emerging needs of data users. The review has been led by the Social Care Analysis Unit in Scottish Government, working closely with Public Health Scotland (PHS) and the Care Inspectorate (CI). The first phase of the work is now complete and a summary report from the review has been published. The report contains a very brief summary of feedback we have received under a number of key themes and presents a number of recommendations for improvement. A full report, containing much more detail on the review, will be made available later in the summer.

For more information on the Care Home Data Review, and to access the summary report, please see our Care Home Data Review page. 

More information

Other organisations also publish evidence relating to health and social care in Scotland. These include:

• Public Health Scotland for social care statistics published by PHS (e.g., care home census and Insights in Social Care) or statistics relating to hospitals and other areas of the NHS in Scotland
• Care Inspectorate for annual returns, the CI datastore, COVID-19 care home statistics etc.
• Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) for social care workforce data
• NHS Scotland Workforce Data
• Improvement service for costings in the local government benchmarking framework
• SCLD for people with learning disabilities
• National Records Scotland website for COVID-19 related deaths

For statistics relating to hospitals and other areas of the NHS in Scotland, see NHS Scotland's Information Services Division (ISD).

See our health and social care topic for more information on policies, indicators and what social care is covered.

For more information on the National Care Service bill please see the National Care Service page and the national care service evidence papers.

Older publications related to health and social care are available in our website archive.