Respite Care Scotland, 2015

Main Points

This publication presents information on support to carers and in particular respite care services provided or purchased by Local Authorities in Scotland over the financial years 2007/08 to 2014/15. Respite care is a service intended to benefit a carer and the person he or she cares for by providing a short break from caring tasks.

It is estimated that there were between 196,060 and 200,650 overnight and daytime respite weeks provided in Scotland in 2014/15, between 2,040 and 6,630 weeks fewer than in 2013/14^[1]. However, at least an estimated 7,160 further weeks were provided through direct payments. There were also an unknown number of weeks provided through other forms of self-directed support.

Chart 1: Estimated real terms changes in the provision of respite weeks in Scotland, excluding Direct Payments, 2007/08 to 2014/15

This represents an estimated real terms increase in respite care provision of between 3,620 and 8,210 weeks between 2007/08 and 2014/15.

The more detailed analysis in this publication will be derived from the 196,060 weeks of respite care which were returned in the survey. It should be noted, though, that this is likely to be an underestimate of what we consider the overall weeks of respite to be.

Collecting data on respite care provided or purchased by Local Authorities in Scotland is challenging for Local Authorities, and involves some degree of subjectivity in determining whether a service can be considered as respite care or not.

Over the last year, we have reviewed the collection of this data through discussions with Local Authorities and National Carers Organisations, and it has been agreed that future publications will no longer report on a count of respite weeks, but will aim to look at support for carers more generally.