Respite Care Scotland, 2013

2. Main points

This statistics release presents information on the number of respite weeks provided or purchased by Local Authorities in Scotland.

Taking into account changes in methodology of data collection, it is estimated that the number of respite weeks provided in Scotland has increased by 12,650 weeks (7.3%) in real terms between 2007/08 and 2012/13. The increases between individual years are as follows:

• increase of 0.8% (1,300 weeks) between 2007/08 and 2008/09
• Increase of 4.0% (7,860 weeks) between 2008/09 and 2009/10
• increase of 0.7% (1,410 weeks) between 2009/10 and 2010/11
• increase of 0.7% (1,340 weeks) between 2010/11 and 2011/12
• increase of 0.4% (740 weeks) between 2011/12 and 2012/13

There are many different types of respite care. It might involve the cared-for person having a break away from home for a few nights, thus benefitting the carer in that they have time for themselves. Or the carer might have a break away, with services being put in place to support the cared-for person. Some people want to have a break together, with additional support to make this happen. Sometimes the service is provided in the home for the cared-for person, with the carer having time to do something themselves for a couple of hours during the day. This publication looks separately at overnight respite stays and daytime respite care.

For 2012/13 Local Authorities recorded data for short breaks purchased using Direct Payments, measured in monetary terms rather than hours and nights. Note that only 17 out of 32 local authorities were able to provide this data, so any Scotland-level figures regarding direct payments are likely to be lower than the real value.

The majority (68%) of respite provision occurs during the day rather than overnight. This figure was the same in 2010/11 and 2011/12. The number of daytime weeks provided was 139,920, while the number of overnight weeks was 65,890. This has remained around the same value since 2010/11, following a steady increase since 2007/08.

Respite provision to older people (aged 65+) has shown a slight decrease in the proportion of respite being provided during the day (62% in 2012/13 from 63% in 2011/12). This follows a steady increase since 2007/08, where only 59% of respite was provided during the day. When compared with the other age groups older people receive a smaller proportion of their respite during the day.

Adults (aged 18-64) receive 76% of their respite during the day, this has increased from 69% in 2007/08 and this age group, when compared to the other age groups receive a higher proportion of their respite during the day.

The provision of respite to younger people (aged 0-18) has shown less variation since 2007/08, the overall trend is for the percentage of daytime respite provided has increased slightly from 67% to 69%.