Respite Care Scotland, 2014

3. Summary of 2013/14 respite provision

There are many different types of respite care. It might involve the cared-for person having a short 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 Release looks separately at overnight respite stays and daytime respite care. Respite nights and hours are converted to respite weeks using the rates of 7 nights per week and 52.5 hours per week.

Some people also choose to receive a cash payment (called a Direct Payment) to buy the care services that they need. In order to provide as complete as possible a picture of respite care provision in 2013/14, this section of the Release combines information on overnight and daytime weeks with a preliminary estimate of the number of additional weeks of respite care that have been provided through Direct Payments. This latter estimate has been made by collecting information on the financial values of Direct Payments provided by Local Authorities for the purpose of providing respite care. These financial values are then converted to an estimated number of respite weeks using the rate of £630 per week / £12 per hour derived from estimates of residential care weekly costs made by the Respite Task Group.

Only 18 out of 32 Local Authorities were able to submit 2013/14 Direct Payments information, so the estimated total number of respite weeks provided in this way will be less than the true value across Scotland. Two of the Authorities that did submit Direct Payments information are known to have also supplied the overnight / daytime amounts for the respite care provided in this way. To avoid double-counting of such care, the financial value derived estimates for these Authorities have been excluded from the respite week totals presented in this section. Further analysis of the financial values of the 2013/14 Direct Payments is contained in Section 5 of this Release.

In addition to the 203,090 overnight and daytime respite weeks provided in Scotland in 2013/14, there were at least a further 12,590 weeks provided through Direct Payments.

Chart 2 shows that the carers of older people (aged 65+) benefitted from 108,490 (53%) of the combined respite weeks provided in Scotland in 2013/14, those of adults aged 18-64 from 72,530 weeks (36%) and those of young people (aged 0-17) from 22,070 weeks (11%). These relative proportions would be unchanged (to the nearest percentage point) if the additional weeks provided through Direct Payments were to be excluded.

Chart 3 shows that daytime respite care accounted for 138,060 (64%) of the combined respite weeks provided in Scotland in 2013/14. Overnight care accounted for 65,030 weeks (30%) and care provided through Direct Payments for 12,590 weeks (6%). However, it must be remembered that this latter component will be underestimated.

Chart 4 shows that of the combined respite care provided for the benefit of carers of adults aged 18-64 in 2013/14, greater proportions of this care occurred during the daytime (70% of respite weeks) and through Direct Payments (9% of respite weeks) than for any other cared-for age group. Of the combined respite care provided for the benefit of carers of older people (aged 65+), a greater proportion of this care occurred overnight (36% of respite weeks, most of which occurred within Care Homes) than for any other cared-for age group.

Chart 2 - Number of respite weeks by cared-for age group, excluding Direct Payments, 2013/14

Chart 3 - Number of respite weeks by type of care, including Direct Payments, 2013/14

Chart 4 - Proportion of respite weeks by cared-for age group and type of care, including Direct Payments, 2013/14

Source: Scottish Government 2013/14
Note: Only 18 out of 32 Local Authorities were able to submit Direct Payment information. Of these, a further two were excluded from the Direct Payments figures in order to prevent double-counting of respite weeks. All of these factors mean that the Direct Payment figures shown on Chart 3 and Chart 4 will be underestimates of their true values.

Chart 5 shows the per-capita rates of recorded overnight and daytime respite week provision in 2013/14, for each Local Authority in Scotland. Any additional weeks of care provided through Direct Payments are excluded from this analysis, on the basis that not all Authorities were able to submit this information. This exclusion means, however, that the chart will relatively under-represent the provision of respite care by Authorities that make greater use of Direct Payments. Furthermore, the different rates of recorded respite provision seen for each Authority will be influenced by the types of respite care they are counting and the methodology they use to calculate hours and nights of care (more information is provided in Section 6.6).

Chart 5 - Overnight and daytime respite weeks provided in 2013/14, expressed as a rate per 1,000 population, by Local Authority

Source: Scottish Government 2013/14
Populations: National Records of Scotland, mid-year estimates 2013
Units are weeks per 1,000 population