Home Care Services, Scotland, 2012

4. Background information on the collection of the data

Local authorities were asked to provide details of all Home Care Services provided by their own staff, and in addition, services bought in from other local authorities, and private / voluntary organisations. Data were collected with respect to the week including 30th March 2012.

Scottish Borders data is based on a different census week (19^th February 2012), this was due to their information management system being upgraded.

A revised Home Care Services statistical data collection was introduced in 2010. The Home Care information is now being collected on an individual record basis as opposed to aggregate tables. ProcXed.net aims to support and promote the electronic exchange of information in Scotland. It reduces administrative burdens and increases the speed, ease and accuracy (via inbuilt validation checks) of information exchange. It additionally encourages best practice and improves access to benchmarking information. Moreover, the system provides a secure method of sharing data. Further information about ProcXed.Net can be provided on request using the contact details provided on the following page.

The Home Care statistical collection asked for information to be returned on every person who receives/uses:

• Home Care Services (provided or purchased by the local authority) during the census week.
• Meals Services (provided or purchased by the local authority) during census week.
• A Community Alarm during census week.
• Other Telecare Services during census week.
• In addition, the following information was optionally asked of local authorities:
• Clients who receive Housing Support (provided or purchased by the local authority) during census week.
• Clients who receive Shopping Services (provided or purchased by the local authority) during census week.
• Clients who receive Laundry Services (provided or purchased by the local authority) during census week.

Local Authority responses to optional items

• 21 Local authorities returned data on clients who received Housing Support.
• 21 Local authorities returned data on clients who received Shopping Services.
• 19 Local authorities returned data on clients who received Laundry Services.
• 5 Local authorities returned data on clients who had an IoRN (Indicator of Relative Need) Score.
• 14 Local Authorities returned data on Self-Directed Support.

For each of the optional items, further analysis will be carried out, and a discussion paper written. These will be published as 'data under development' over the coming months.

In 2012, local authorities identified whether the hours of Home Care they provided were 'scheduled' or 'actual' hours during the census week. 20 local authorities provided 'scheduled' hours, 4 local authorities provided 'actual' hours, and 8 local authorities provided both 'scheduled' and 'actual' hours.

Client groupings

Definitions have been kept consistent to maintain trends over time except for client groups. Client groups and definitions were revised in 2010 and (slightly) in 2011. Multiple client groups have been allowed from 2010. Client group analysis over time should therefore be treated with caution. Full definitions can be found in the 'Home care services guidance notes' which can be found at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/HomeCareCensus.

In this publication, where a local authority returned multiple client groups, in order to avoid double counting clients have been allocated to one client group. This has been based on the following order:

1. Dementia
2. Mental Health Problems
3. Learning Disability
4. Physical Disability
5. Infirmity due to age (for people who do not fall into categories 1-4)
6. Other vulnerable groups (including Addiction, Palliative Care and Carer's)
7. Not known

For example, if a client has dementia and has a physical disability, then in table 2 they will appear in the dementia client group for the purpose of analysis.

Community Alarm and other Telecare

Telecare is the remote or enhanced delivery of care services to people in their own home by means of telecommunications and computerised services. Telecare usually refers to sensors or alerts which provide continuous, automatic and remote monitoring of care needs emergencies and lifestyle changes, using information and communication technology (ICT) to trigger human responses, or shut down equipment to prevent hazards (Source: National Telecare Development Programme, Scottish Government). Community Alarms are considered to be the basic, introductory level of telecare.

Community Alarm is defined as: A person in receipt of a technology package which consists of a communication hub (either individual home hub unit or part of a communal system e.g. the alarm system within sheltered housing), plus a button/pull chords/pendant which transfers an alert/alarm/data to a monitoring centre or individual responder.

Telecare is defined as; A person in receipt of a technology package which goes over and above the basic community alarm package identified above, and includes any other sensors or monitoring equipment e.g. (not an exhaustive list);

• linked pill dispensers,
• linked smoke detectors,
• linked key safes,
• bogus caller buttons and door entry systems,
• property exit sensors, extreme temperature, flood, falls, movement detectors.

Stand alone devices and pieces of equipment are not be considered 'telecare' for the purpose of this return i.e. they should be capable of alerting/providing information to a monitoring centre or individual responder and should generally be 'linked' to the home hub or communal alarm system.

Data completeness

A return was received from each local authority in Scotland.

More detailed tables on Home Care services are available from our website at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/Data/HomeCare.

Other data sources

In order to calculate rates per population, the National Records of Scotland (NRS) mid year population estimates have been used. For 2012 rates, the 2011 mid year population estimates have been used (the latest available).

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/theme/population/index.html

Cost of respondent burden

To calculate the cost of respondent burden to this survey each Local Authority was asked to provide an estimate of the time taken in hours to extract the requested information and complete the survey form. The average time from 14 Local Authorities has then been used within the calculation below to calculate that the total cost of responding to this survey is £24,842.

Further information

Further details and analysis of the data presented in this Statistics Release are available on request from the address given below. The Statistics Release is available on the Internet by accessing the Scottish Government web site: —

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/Publications

Information at local authority level is shown in the annex to this Statistics Release.

Contact details

Contact: Steven Gillespie
Tel: 0131 244 3777
E-mail: SWStat@scotland.gov.uk

This statistics release was published on 27^th November 2012.