Carers Census, Scotland, 2019-20 and 2020-21

4. Cared For Person Information

The relationship between carers and the people they care for can be complex. Carers can provide care to more than one person and cared for people can receive care from more than one carer. Based on those de-duplicated records for which there is also information on the person being cared for; in 2019-20 20,740 carers provided care for one person while 2,540 carers provided care to two or more people. In 2020-21, 19,540 carers provided care for one person and 2,860 carers provided care for more than one person.

The information in this section is based on the number of individual cared for people who received care and support from the unpaid carers discussed in Section 3. This includes 25,140 cared for people in 2019-20: 24,010 cared for people who received care from one carer and 1,130 who received care from more than one carer. In 2020-21, there were 24,260 cared for people: 22,820 receiving care from one carer and 1,440 receiving care from more than one carer.

4.1 Age and Gender

In 2020-21, 20% of cared for people in the Carers Census were children. 30% were working age adults and 41% were older people aged 65+. This is similar to 2019-20.

Source: Carers Census, Scotland, 2019-20 and 2020-21

There was a similar proportion of male and female cared for people overall and a similar proportion of male and female adult cared for people in both years. However, as seen in Figure 8, this differed for children being cared for by an unpaid carer. In both 2019-20 and 2020-21, 63% of children being cared for were male compared to 30% who were female.

4.2 Main Client Group

A person's main client group, such as mental health or physical disability, is the main reason a person requires care and support. Cared for people can have more than one client group but for the purposes of this analysis, only the main client group for each cared for person is considered.

In 2020-21, the most common main client group overall and for adult cared for people, apart from 'Other', was Dementia (14% of adult cared for people) followed by Physical Disability (12% of adult cared for people). However, the most common main client group for children receiving care from an unpaid carer was Autism Spectrum Disorder (21%). This is similar to 2019-20.

Source: Carers Census, Scotland, 2019-20 and 2020-21