National Care Service - people who access adult social care and unpaid carers: evidence

3. Profile of unpaid carers

As there is currently no central mechanism for identifying unpaid carers, the numbers presented here are estimates. There are a number of ways to do this, as detailed in the latest Scotland’s Carers – Update Release^[11], but the preferred source for estimating the total number of carers in Scotland is the Scottish Health Survey^[12] as it samples both children and adults and can provide additional information on carers’ health and support.

As detailed in the latest Scotland’s Carers – Update Release, the number of carers living in Scotland is estimated to be around 700,000 to 800,000. Data from the latest full Scottish Health Survey suggested that there were an estimated 685,000 unpaid carers in Scotland in 2016-19. This includes an estimated 30,000 young carers (aged under 18) and is more than the total paid health workforce (140,000 staff^[13]) and social care workforce (210,000 staff^[14]) combined.

Data from the 2020 Scottish Health Survey^[15] suggests that there were 839,000 unpaid carers in 2020. However, this figure is not comparable to previous years as it is based on a telephone survey that ran between August and September 2020 rather than the usual face to face interviews over a longer period of time.

The latest estimate from the full Scottish Health Survey for 2016-19 is significantly lower than the previous estimate of 790,000 carers included in the Scotland’s Carers publication^[16] for 2012/13. However, other than a slight change to the Scottish Health Survey question in 2014 which made the exclusion of paid work more explicit, there were no changes to survey methodology or sampling technique between 2014 and 2015, which is when the biggest drop was seen. The figures have since remained consistent.

The latest estimates^[17] suggest that older working age females are more likely to provide unpaid care than other age and gender groups. Over a quarter (26%) of females aged 45-54 and 23% of females aged 55-64 reported providing unpaid care.

Source: Scottish Government (2020) Scottish Health Survey 2019: supplementary tables

Data from the Scottish Health Survey, 2016-19^[18] shows that around a third (33%) of unpaid carers over the age of 16 provide up to 4 hours of unpaid care per week, while 15% provide 50 or more hours per week. This varies by level of deprivation, as people in the most deprived areas are more than twice as likely to provide 50 or more hours of unpaid care per week compared to people living in the least deprived areas (21% in the most deprived areas compared to 8% in the least deprived areas). People in the most deprived areas are also more likely to be unable to take up work as a result of providing unpaid care compared to those in the least deprived areas (11% in the most deprived areas compared to 1% in the least deprived).

In the 2021-22 Scottish Health and Care Experience Survey^[19], which looks at people’s experiences of services and caring, 18% of respondents indicated that they provided someone with unpaid care. This is slightly higher than in previous years and higher than the results of the Scottish Health Survey. Of these people, 48% reported caring for a parent and 24% reported caring for a partner or spouse.

For carers who are actively supported in their caring role, the Carers Census^[20] collects a variety of information from local authorities and third sector carer centres on unpaid carers who receive formal support or have a support plan in place. This is a relatively new collection and results should be treated with caution as it is taking time for providers to implement systems to accurately collect and record the requested information for the Carers Census following a significant change in practice.

In 2020/21, there were 31,760 carers receiving some kind of formal support. This is similar to the 32,690 carers reported as receiving some kind of formal support in 2019/20. However, this does not include all carers who are in contact with carer centres, as informal contact with carers would likely not be recorded in their systems. As noted above, these figures should be treated with caution as it is a relatively new and developing data collection.

The data suggests that people with more intense caring roles are more likely to be supported. In 2020/21, over half of carers (54%) being supported were providing 50 or more hours per week. This is more than triple the proportion reported in the latest Scottish Health Survey. The data also suggests that females may be more likely to seek out support with their caring role, as the data showed that 71% of carers being supported in 2020/21 were female. This is higher than in Scotland’s Carers^[21], which covered the total caring population, and showed that closer to 60% of unpaid carers are female.

Around 3 in 5 carers (62%) being supported in 2020/21 were working age adults (18-64 years old), while 14% were young carers (aged under 18 years). This is higher than estimates concerning the total carer population^[22], where less than 5% of carers are young carers. This may indicate that carer support services are reaching a greater proportion of young carers than adult carers.

There were more female carers than male in each age group but the difference was most pronounced in working age carers, where around three-quarters (76%) were female. This is consistent with estimates for the total caring population as shown in Figure 2, where older working age females were more likely to provide unpaid care than other age groups.

Source: Scottish Government (2021) Carers Census, Scotland, 2019-20 and 2020-21

The Carers Census also showed that young carers receiving formal support were more likely to live in the most deprived areas in 2020/21; 14% of young carers lived in the 10% most deprived areas in Scotland while 5% lived in the 10% least deprived areas. However, there did not appear to be much difference by level of deprivation in the number of adult carers receiving formal support.

The Carers Census data from 2020/21 indicated that, overall, 66% of carers were recorded as needing advice and information. 45% were recorded as needing short breaks or respite and 36% were recorded as needing counselling or emotional support.

The data suggested that adult and young carers had different support needs. Adult carers were almost twice as likely as young carers to be recorded as needing advice and information in 2020/21 (72% compared to 39% of young carers) and were also more likely to need practical support, such as equipment and adaptations (23% compared to 8% of young carers). Young carers were more likely to be recorded as needing peer or group support (16% compared to 3% of adult carers) in 2020/21.

Source: Scottish Government (2021) Carers Census, Scotland, 2019-20 and 2020-21