Respite Care Scotland, 2013

5. Clients receiving Direct Payments for Respite Care

Some people choose to receive a cash payment (called a Direct Payment) to buy the care services that they need. By giving people money instead of social care services, they have greater choice and control over their life and are able to make their own decisions about how care is delivered. Prior to 2013, many local authorities were unable to include information on Direct Payments in the Respite survey as they could not easily convert the payments into weeks of respite care. From 2013, we have asked a new question on Direct Payments which asks for the amount of money each person receives for the full financial year. Not all authorities were able to submit this data, so the information provided in this report should be regarded as preliminary.

For the 17 authorities who did record direct payments data, it is estimated that £7,964,000 was spent in Scotland on direct payments for respite care. Most of this was for younger adults, as shown in Chart 10.

Chart 10: Direct payments for respite care in Scotland (millions), by age group

Source: Audit Scotland SPI data 2007/08-2008/09, Scottish Government 2009/10-2012/13

Chart 11 shows the amount spent on Direct Payments for respite care per head of population, for the authorities who recorded Direct Payments data.

Chart 11: Direct payments expenditure (£M) for respite care in 2012/13, per 1,000 population

Source: Scottish Government 2012/13

Populations: General Register Office for Scotland, mid-year estimate 2012