Free Personal and Nursing Care, Scotland, 2023-24
Statistics release presenting data on the number of people aged 18 and over that benefit from Free Personal Care (FPC) and Free Nursing Care (FNC) in Scotland, and the amount that Local Authorities spend on personal care services.
This section presents total estimated expenditure, for the 2023-24 financial year, on FPC and FNC payments (together, FPNC payments) to self-funding care home residents. Expenditure data on FPNC payments relate only to self-funding care home residents.
The weekly values of FPNC in 2023-24 were:
- £233.10 for FPC; this is 9.5% higher than in 2022-23 (£212.85)
- £104.90 for FNC; this is 9.5% higher than in 2022-23 (£95.80)
The value of FPNC payments since 2003-04 is given in Appendix 1 of the methodology and background information document.
Age 65 and over
In 2023-24, an estimated £174 million was spent by local authorities on FPNC payments to self-funding care home residents aged 65 and over. This is a 10% increase from the estimated £157 million spent in the previous year.
An estimated £133 million of this total expenditure on FPNC in care homes was spent on FPC payments (77% of total expenditure for those aged 65 and over), with the remaining £41 million (23%) spent on FNC. These are the same as the proportions of FPC and FNC expenditure in 2022-23.
Note: since 2021-22, expenditure values for care home residents aged 65 and over have been estimated using data on numbers of clients receiving FPNC submitted by local authorities in the Quarterly Monitoring Return. Before then, they taken from the Local Financial Return 03 (LFR03). Data from before 2021-22 is therefore not comparable with data since 2021-22. Please see 'expenditure data' in the limitations of data and further background section of the accompanying methodology and background information document for more information on these changes.
Age 18 to 64
In 2023-24, an estimated £2.21 million was spent by local authorities on FPNC payments to self-funding care home residents aged 18 to 64. This is a 15% increase from the estimated £1.92 million spent the previous year.
An estimated £1.71 million was spent on FPC payments for 18 to 64 year olds in 2023-24 (78% of the total expenditure on FPNC for 18 to 64s), with the remaining estimated £0.49 million (22%) spent on FNC. These are the same proportions as in 2022-23, and are similar to the proportions of FPC and FNC within FPNC payments to those aged 65 and over in 2023-24.
Full data is available in the accompanying tables, both at Scotland total and local authority level.
Contact
If you have any questions about this publication, or suggestions for what we could do better next year, please contact the Social Care Analytical Unit (SCAU): SWStat@gov.scot
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