Social care - personal assistants: current data sources and future work

Data Source – Insights in Social Care, Public Health Scotland

Data can be accessed via the Public Health Scotland website. The latest data on Self- Directed Support (SDS) can be accessed directly here.

Background to data collection

Public Health Scotland (PHS) collects information directly from Local Authorities on a variety of social care topics, including Self-Directed Support. The full list of variables collected can be found here. Data is submitted to PHS on a quarterly basis. The data is then cleaned and quality assured before being published annually on the PHS website.

Currently, direct payments (SDS option 1) are one of the main ways people can fund a PA. People can fund PAs through other methods as well such as the Independent Living Fund, other government payments and personal funds. It is important to note however that not everyone who receives direct payments will employ a PA. People funding PA using direct payments are included in Skills for Care’s approach to estimating the number of PA in England. Insights in Social Care collects data on the number of people receiving direct payments in Scotland and has the option for data providers to indicate if the service user received support via a personal assistance contract or other support mechanism.

Latest findings

The latest Insights in Social Care publication shows that in 2021/22, 10,035 people in Scotland were recorded as receiving a direct payment - which is the equivalent of 1.8 per 1,000 population. This number includes mostly adults (1% of records refer to children) and will be an undercount of the true number of people receiving direct payments, as Aberdeen City, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and South Ayrshire did not submit any data on Self-Directed Support for 2021/22.

The number of people choosing to receive support via a direct payment varied across Scotland, with the highest rates seen in rural areas. The highest rate of direct payments was seen in Scottish Borders with 5.9 per 1,000 population followed by Dumfries & Galloway, with 4.8 per 1,000 population. Table 1 shows the rate of direct payments in each area that submitted information on Self-Directed Support.

Table 2 shows the number and rates of people receiving support via personal assistance contracts. The rates presented in Tables 1 and 2 are different, as presented on the PHS website and should not be compared. This is a separate variable collected by PHS and is not necessarily linked to the number of people receiving direct payments (SDS option 1). For instance, it would be possible for someone to be recorded as receiving support via a personal assistance contract but not be recorded as receiving a direct payment as they could be funding this through an alternative route. This explains instances such as in Orkney, for example, where there are more people recorded as receiving support via a personal assistance contract than recorded as receiving direct payments.

However, this information is poorly returned by local authorities and so results shown in Table 2 should be treated with caution. It should also be noted that data is only available for 18 out of 32 Local Authorities as 3 areas did not submit any information on SDS, 4 areas recorded all clients as ‘Not Known’ for the Type of Organisation Providing Support and Services (East Ayrshire, Highland, Moray and Scottish Borders) and so are not included in the table and 7 areas recorded 0 people as receiving support via a personal assistance contract, which indicates that the information was not available.

Benefits and Limitations of the data

PHS’ Insights in Social Care publication is the main source of national level social care data in Scotland. As it collects individual level data, it can provide very detailed analysis by demographic characteristics and types of support received. PHS publish a number of breakdowns related to SDS such as options chosen by age, implementation rate, SDS by client group and assessed support needs.

However, data on SDS is not always returned by every area and the SDS support variable (type of support mechanism) in particular is poorly returned by Local Authorities. The number of people recorded as receiving direct payments may also be an undercount due to the variation in data recording between data providers.

Applying the percentage of direct payment recipients who employ PAs used in the SfC calculation would give an estimated figure of around 3,210 PA employers in Scotland (who use direct payments for funding). When also considering the 489 people who funded a PA via the Independent Living Fund, this would account for around 94% of the number of PA employers approved by Scotland Excel for the £500 COVID-19 Thank You payment, as discussed in the next section.

This figure is slightly greater than the number of people recorded as receiving support via a personal assistance contract (3,115); however, more work is required to understand how Local Authorities are interpreting this question as it may include more people than those receiving direct payments. It should also be noted that this information is only available for 18 out of 32 Local Authorities and so is likely a sizeable undercount.

The Scottish Government will work with the SDS Practice Network to look at the number of people receiving direct payments and how many of them employ PAs and will work with PHS to improve understanding on how support via a personal assistance contract is interpreted.