Social Care Services, Scotland, 2014

Introduction and key points

This Statistics Release presents the latest national figures for Social Care services provided or purchased by Local Authorities in Scotland. These services give people the support, practical help and personal care that they need to live as independently as possible in the community. With the introduction of the Self-Directed Support (SDS) bill in April 2014, it is expected that in future years this publication will become more focused on SDS (see Background Notes for more information).

The Social Care services covered in this release are; Home Care, Community Alarm/Telecare, Direct Payments, Meals and Housing Support services. There are three sections: the first provides a summary of clients of all ages receiving these services in Scotland. The second gives service-level information on older people (aged 65+) and the third focuses on working age adults (aged 18 to 64). Information on young people (aged 0-17) is included in the totals presented in first section, but is not analysed in detail, due to the relatively small numbers of Social Care clients in this age group.

The information presented on Home Care, Community Alarm / Telecare, Meals services and Housing Support is based on a census week containing 31 March 2014. The information on Direct Payments covers the 2013/14 financial year. All figures are provisional and may be subject to change in future publications. All of the figures presented have been rounded to the nearest 10, 100 or 1,000.

This release includes an additional section presenting analysis of Social Care data by relative deprivation within Scotland. This data is under development.