Social Care Services, Scotland, 2013

2. Social Care Summary Information - All Ages

This section provides a summary of the data collected in the Social Care Survey. Figures 3 and 4 show the age breakdown for Home Care and Direct Payments clients respectively. 83% of Home Care clients are aged 65 and over, however 64% of clients receiving Direct Payments are aged under 65.

Figure 3: Home Care clients by age, 2013

Figure 4: Direct Payments clients by age, 2012/13

Source: Social Care Survey 2013

Figure 5 shows how many Social Care clients receive each service covered in the report. The largest group is those receiving Community Alarms and/or Telecare, with over 114,000 clients. Direct Payments accounts for the fewest number of clients with just over 5,400. Note that many clients will receive multiple services and so the sum of each category does not equal the overall total.

Figure 5: Social Care Client by type of services, all ages

Source: Social Care Survey 2013

Figure 6 looks at the breakdown of Social Care clients by age and gender. It shows that the proportion of clients who are female increases with age; 51% of clients aged under 65 are female, compared with 69% of clients aged 65 and over. This reflects the fact that women on average live longer than men and that women are more likely to be living alone as they get older.

Figure 6: Age and gender of Social Care clients

Source: Social Care Survey 2013

Note: This is based on 152,588 clients who recorded gender. Gender was unknown for 40 clients

Figure 7 shows the breakdown of all Social Care clients by age and Client Group. Over 86% of clients with learning disabilities are aged under 65, compared with just over 25% with a physical disability.

Figure 7: Client Group of Clients Receiving Social Care services

Source: Social Care Survey 2013

Note: "Other" includes addictions, palliative care and carers

Note: "Dementia" is under recorded in the social care management information system.

The rates of clients receiving Social Care varies between each of the 32 local authorities in Scotland. Figure 8 shows that Aberdeen City has the lowest rates (around 17 clients per 1,000 population), and Dundee City has the highest (over 45 clients per 1,000 population). The number of Social Care clients in an area will depend on demand for services. Some of the variation may also reflect the ability of a local authority to record all services, in particular Housing Support services may be under-recorded in some areas (see background note for more details).

Figure 8: Rates Social care client per 1,000 population, all ages

Figures 9 and 10 show who is providing Home Care for clients for each year from 2004 to 2013. The majority of clients (55%) are receiving services provided solely from Local Authorities. However this trend has decreased each year since 2004. The proportion of Home Care hours being provided solely by Local Authorities is just under 40%, reflecting the fact that the private and voluntary sector, on average provide larger packages of care.

Figure 9: Home Care clients by Service Provider All ages, 2004 to 2013

Figure 10: Home Care hours by Service Provider All ages, 2004 to 2013

Source: Social Care Survey 2013, Home Care Census 2004-2012