Free Personal and Nursing Care, Scotland, 2022-23

Possible reasons for exceptions to trends in data

Any large year-on-year or quarter-on-quarter increases or decreases in data for a single Local Authority (available in the supplementary data tables) may be due to one or more of the below reasons:

• changes in recording methodology
• changes to the allocation of services and funding, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic for financial year 2020-21
• the cost of living crisis reducing the number of people who meet the self-funding threshold for Care Homes
• families changing work patterns to enable them to provide Care at Home for longer
• anxiety about going into a Care Home because of Covid-19, so some people are contacting social work later than previously
• when a husband or wife is their spouse’s main carer, they are more often choosing to stay in their home when one of them goes into care