Producing time series comparable to 2020-21 LFRs: guidance note

Comparability

Comparability Issues for Specific LFRs

LFR 03

• From 2012-13 onwards, ‘Adults with addictions / substance misuse’, ‘HIV / AIDS’ and ‘Services to Asylum Seekers and Refugees’ are grouped into the ‘Adults with Other Needs’ subservice.
• From 2019-20, ‘Older Persons’, ‘Adults with physical or sensory disabilities’, ‘Adults with learning disabilities’, ‘Adults with mental health needs’ and ‘Adults with other needs’ are grouped into the ‘Adult Social Care’ subservice.
• The ‘Integration Joint Boards (IJBs)’ subservice introduced in 2019-20 can be compared to LFR 00, Cell P40 in 2016-17 to 2018-19; and to LFR 00, Cell O41 in 2015-16. 

LFRs 05 & 09

• In 2015-16, figures for VJBs and RTPs may include income from Central Government grant that was not allocated to services within their statutory accounts. The relevant amounts of this income for each service can be found in LFR 00, Row 97. These amounts are included under General Funding (non-service income) in all other years.

LFRs 07

• In 2020-21, there was a change to the wording of the service / subservice headings in LFR 07. However, there was no change in recording against each subservice and so this change has no impact on comparability between years.

Comparability of ‘Additional Information’ Figures

Some service-level LFRs collect ‘Additional Information’ – that is information collected in addition to the standard figures collected within each service-level LFR. Generally, these lines are recorded on a consistent basis with the main LFR figures for that year, for example gross expenditure additional information figures will align to the gross expenditure definition within that years’ LFR. This means that any changes to calculations of gross expenditure, gross income or net revenue expenditure within the LFR, will be reflected in the additional information figures.

As the level of detail required for comparability adjustments is not available for additional information figures, it is not possible to ensure strict comparability between years where there has been a change in calculation. In particular:

• 2016-17 to 2018-19: Additional information lines for gross expenditure and net revenue expenditure will not be strictly comparable to 2020-21 due to the adjustment for payments to IJBs (Row 10).
• 2015-16: Additional information lines for gross expenditure, gross income and net revenue expenditure will not be strictly comparable to 2020-21 due to the adjustments for payments to IJBs (Row 10) and recharges (Row 22).
• 2012-13 to 2014-15: Additional information lines for gross expenditure, gross income and net revenue expenditure will not be strictly comparable to 2020-21 due to the adjustments for RCC (Row 9) and recharges (Row 16).
• 2011-12: Additional information lines for gross expenditure, gross income and net revenue expenditure will not be strictly comparable to 2020-21 due to the adjustments for RCC (Row 9) and recharges (Row 14).

Users should consider the value of the adjustments for the subservice, local authority and year(s) of interest to establish the potential impact these adjustments would likely have on the comparability of additional information figures.