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 data on the number of clients receiving Care at Home services, and estimates how many of those receive personal care as part of that support.
Note: some local authorities do not distinguish between personal care at home and Care at Home in general, and class all Care at Home as personal care. Therefore, the number and percentage of Care at Home clients reported as receiving personal care in this publication may be higher than the actual underlying position.
Age 65 and over
In 2023-24, an estimated 48,820 people aged 65 and over received Care at Home services. This is 3% higher than the 47,430 estimated in 2022-23, but is similar to the number in 2017‑18 (48,800) – the earliest previous year to which a comparison can be made.
In 2023-24, an estimated 47,130 or 97% of Care at Home clients aged 65 and over received personal care services as part of their Care at Home package. This is a 4% increase from the estimated 45,330 (96%) who received personal care at home in 2022-23.
The trend of numbers of clients aged 65 and over receiving personal care as part of their Care at Home package has closely followed the trend of people receiving Care at Home in general. This means that the proportion of Care at Home clients aged 65 and over estimated to have received personal care services as part of their Care at Home package has remained fairly constant over the last seven years, ranging from 94% to 97% (Figure 2).
Note: the source of this data changed between 2016-17 and 2017-18. As a result, any comparisons between years before and after the change should be treated with caution. Although data for years before 2017-18 are shown in figure 2, in the text we only make comparisons between years since 2017-18. For more information, please see the data sources and limitations of data and further background sections of the accompanying methodology and background information document.
Figure 2: The vast majority of clients aged 65 and over who received Care at Home have received personal care services as part of their care package over the past 10 years. Since 2017-18 (when the data source changed), the estimated percentage has ranged from 94% to 97%.
The number of Care at Home (CaH) clients aged 65 and over, split by whether or not they received personal care services, Scotland, 2014-15 to 2023-24. The percentages located in the bottom bars show the percentage of CaH clients who received personal care services. The percentages above the top bars show the percentage of CaH clients who did not receive Personal Care services.
Source: Social Care Survey 2013-14 to 2016-17; Scottish Government Quarterly Monitoring Return 2017-18 to 2023-24. The dashed vertical line on the chart shows where the source of data has changed. Any comparisons of years before and after the data source changed should be treated with caution.
Age 18 to 64
The number of people aged 18 to 64 who received Care at Home in 2023-24 was estimated at 16,960. This is a 2% increase from the estimated 16,690 in 2022-23. However, this number has risen by 15%, or an average of around 3% per year over the last five years, from an estimated 14,750 in 2018-19. The year 2018-19 was the last before Frank’s Law extended Free Personal Care to all adults assessed as needing personal care.
Of these Care at Home clients aged 18 to 64, an estimated 13,110 (or 77%) received personal care services as part of their care package in 2023-24. This is a one percentage point increase from 2022-23 (an estimated 76%).
Between 2019-20 and 2023-24, around three quarters (between 75% and 77%) of Care at Home clients aged 18 to 64 are estimated to have received personal care services as part of their Care at Home package. This compares to an estimated 72% in 2018-19, the last year before Frank’s Law extended Free Personal Care to all adults. (See Figure 3.)
Figure 3: Since 2019-20, around three quarters of Care at Home clients aged 18 to 64 have received personal care as part of their package. In 2018-19 (just before Frank’s Law came into effect) that percentage was an estimated 72%.
The estimated number of Care at Home clients aged 18 to 64 receiving personal care services (bottom bar), and the estimated number of Care at Home clients aged 18 to 64 not receiving personal care services (top bar), Scotland, 2018-19 to 2023-24. The percentages on the bars denote the estimated percentage of all Care at Home clients who did or did not receive personal care services as part of their care package.
Source: Scottish Government Quarterly Monitoring Return. The dashed vertical line marks the extension of Free Personal Care to all adults under Frank’s Law, which came into effect on 1 April 2019.
Full data is available in the accompanying tables, both at Scotland total and local authority level.
Please note: Scottish Borders were unable to provide data on numbers of clients aged 18-64 who received personal care at home in years 2018-19 to 2022-23, although did provide it in 2023-24. Data from Scottish Borders in 2022-23 (and earlier years) has been excluded from calculations of percentages of Care at Home clients receiving personal care services. For more information please see the Data Quality section.
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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