Respite Care Scotland, 2015

4. Financial values of Direct Payments used to provide respite care

Some people choose to receive a cash payment (a Direct Payment) to buy the care services that they need. By giving people money instead of social care services, they have greater choice and control over their life and are able to make their own decisions about how care is delivered. From 2012/13 onwards, Local Authorities have been asked to submit information on the financial values of Direct Payments received for the purpose of providing respite care, which may then be converted to an estimate of weeks of care (as discussed in Section 2). As only some Local Authorities have been able to submit Direct Payment information (18 in 2013/14, 21 in 2014/15), the analysis contained in this section should be considered as preliminary.

Chart 11 shows the breakdown of Direct Payments by age group, with adults aged 18-64 the group that received the largest total value of Direct Payments in 2014/15.

Chart 11: Value of Direct Payments for respite care (£ millions), by cared-for age group, 2014/15

Source: Scottish Government 2014/15
Note: Only 21 out of 32 Local Authorities submitted Direct Payments data, so the figures shown above are likely to be less than the actual level of Direct Payments made across Scotland. In addition, two of these Authorities only submitted partial data, which may affect the proportions associated with different cared-for age groups.
Units are millions of £ (rounded to one decimal place)

This does not take into account the relative populations of each group, however. The value of Direct Payments per 1,000 population for the Local Authorities that submitted Direct Payments data for both 2013/14 and 2014/15, shown in Chart 12, suggests that payments made to provide respite for carers of older people are larger. The chart also shows that the rate of Direct Payment expenditure per 1,000 population was higher in 2014/15 than in 2013/14 for each age group.

Chart 12: Rates of Direct Payment expenditure per 1,000 population by age group, 2013/14 and 2014/15

Source: Scottish Government 2014/15
Populations: National Records of Scotland, mid-year estimates 2013 and 2014
Includes data for 13 Local Authorities, with total 2014-15 Direct Payments of £5.3m
Units are £ per 1,000 population