Free Personal and Nursing Care, Scotland, 2022-23

Care home residents

• 31,420 long-stay residents aged 18 and over were supported in Care Homes in Scotland on 31 March 2023. The majority (89%) of these were aged 65 and over, with 11% of adult Care Home residents aged 18-64.
• This is a 1.7% increase from the 30,890 long-stay residents aged 18 and over who were supported in Care Homes on 31 March 2022. The 18-64 Care Home population increased less than the over 65 population over the last year, increasing by 0.8% and 1.8% respectively.
• 10,920 (approximately 35%) of adult Care Home residents received FPC and/or FNC payments in the last week of 2022-23. However, Care Home residents aged 65 and over were far more likely to receive FPNC payments than those aged 18 to 64.  Of the 3,340 long-stay Care Home residents aged 18-64, only 4% received FPNC, compared to 38% of the 28,080 residents aged 65 and over.
• For both age groups, the number of Care Home residents receiving FPNC payments has increased by around 3% in the year since 31 March 2022.

Care at home clients

• 63,930 people received care in their own home in the last week of 2022-23, 26% of whom were aged 18-64. This means a greater percentage of Care at Home clients were aged 18-64 than the percentage of Care Home clients in this younger age group (11%, as mentioned above).
• The majority (90%) of Care at Home clients received Personal Care services as part of their care package. However, this was more common for Care at Home clients aged 65 and over (96% of whom received Personal Care services) than those aged 18-64 (75% of whom received Personal Care services).
• After falling by 6% between 2020-21 and 2021-22, the number of clients receiving Personal Care services at home increased by 3% in the last year (from 57,610 in 2021-22).

Care home expenditure

• An estimated £160 million was spent on FPNC payments to adults aged over 18 in Care Homes from April 2022 – March 2023, 98.8% of which was spent on those aged 65+. Across all age groups, estimated expenditure on FPNC payments for adults in Care Homes increased by 13% from £141 million in 2021-22

Hours of personal care provided at home

• 9.9 hours of FPC at home per client per week were estimated to have been provided on average to people aged 65 and over in the last week of 2022-23 (across the 31 out of 32 Local Authorities able to submit data for this section). This is a 3% increase from the 9.6 hours of care provided per client aged over 65 per week in the last week of 2021-22
• 20.4 hours of FPC at home per client per week were estimated to have been provided on average to 18-64 year olds in the last week of 2022-23 (across the 30 Local Authorities able to submit data for this section). This is a 3% increase from the 19.8 hours of FPC provided on average per week to clients aged 18-64 in the last week of 2021-22
• Therefore, in the last week of 2022-23, FPC at home clients aged 18-64 received approximately double the average weekly hours of personal care than those aged 65+.

Personal Care at Home expenditure

• £702 million was estimated to have been spent on providing personal care to people in their own homes over the 2022-23 financial year (in the 29 Local Authorities able to submit data for this section). £444 million (63%) of this was spent on adults aged 65+, with the remaining £258 million (37%) funding those aged 18-64
• The amount spent providing Personal Care services to clients in their own homes was on average 2.1 times greater per client for those aged 18-64 than for those aged 65+. (The average costs per person per year were £22,900 for those aged 18-64 and £10,900 for those aged 65+).