Statistical Bulletin: Health Series: Care Homes, Scotland, 2009

7. Background Information on the Census of Care Home Establishments

The Scottish Care Home census is intended to cover all adult care home establishments that are registered with the Care Commission. The Care Commission is responsible for regulating a wide range of social services and was established under the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001.

This census was first issued in March 2003 and replaced two previous surveys. It combined the former 'Residential Care Home Census - R1' (run by the Scottish Government) and the 'Private Nursing Homes Census' (run by ISD Scotland). In March 2006 some of the data collection, relating mainly to care home places, was taken over by the Care Commission. Therefore, this publication excludes tables relating to places in single rooms, en-suite places and occupancy rates that have been published in statistics releases for previous censuses.

Figures showing the number and percentage of care home places in single rooms and the number and percentage of en-suite places in care homes are available from Audit Scotland. This data is shown as indicator 3 in the adult social work performance indicators at http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/performance/service/

Care should be taken when interpreting the Audit Scotland data. The local authority split shows places that are funded by each local authority as opposed to places located in each authority as is the case in this statistics release.

The number of Care Homes which were operational at the March census was 1,442. Full or partial responses were received from 1,062 open care homes giving a response rate of approximately 73.6 per cent.

The figures in this statistics release have been grossed up to take account of non-response. The methodology adopted was based on carrying forward previous records available for the care home in question.

All figures in this release omit care homes that deregistered to become Housing Support services.

Further Information

Further details and analysis of the data presented in this Statistics Release is available on request from the following address. The Statistics Release is also available on the Scottish Government web site ( www.scotland.gov.uk). This release was published on 27 April 2010.

Contact: Steven Gillespie
Tel: 0131 244 3777
E-mail: SWStat@scotland.gov.uk