Publication, Part of Adult Social Care Activity and Finance Report
Adult Social Care Activity and Finance Report, England, 2023-24
National statistics, Official statistics, Accredited official statistics
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11 November 2024 16:00 PM
Requests for Support
This chapter shows the number of requests for support received by local authorities from new clients (those clients not currently in receipt of long term support) and the outcome of those requests (only those requests for which an outcome, also known as a sequel, had been determined in the reporting period are included in these figures. As such, these figures may include requests received in the previous year where the outcome was determined in the current year). Depending on the structure in each local authority, these requests may be received directly into:
- adult social care departments
- partner agencies such as mental health trusts
- via a contact centre handling all requests for support from the local authority
- a combination of any of these.
The finance collection does not specifically breakdown expenditure related to frontline requests and so it is not possible to identify the spend on these activities.
Key Findings
In 2023-24 and for the second time there were over 2.0 million requests for support (2,085,720) from new clients received by local authorities. This is an increase of 83,670 (4.2%) compared with 2,002,055 requests for support in 2022-23.
This equates to an average of 5,715 requests for support from new clients received each day. The following chart shows a time series of the average requests per day by age group.
Source: SALT collection, 2023-24, NHS England - See Table 2 in Data Tables. 2015 -16, 2019-20 and 2023-24 are based on 366 days due to leap years.
CASSRs provided reasons for the fluctuation since last year, including:
- services still continue to be affected post-pandemic
- operating models have evolved to reflect the pandemic
- increased complexity of clients
- change in recording processes and case management systems
- improved reporting
- increased demand for services.
Table 3 below shows the regional variance of requests for support per 100,000 adults.
Table 3: Number of requests for support per 100,000 adults, by age group and region, 2023-24
| 18 to 64 | 65 and over | |||||
| Requests for support per 100,000 adults | Requests for support | Population | Requests for support per 100,000 adults | Requests for support | Population | |
| England | 1,975 | 658,350 | 33,347,561 | 14,205 | 1,427,375 | 10,048,052 |
| North East | 2,615 | 41,265 | 1,577,398 | 14,205 | 77,330 | 544,457 |
| North West | 2,640 | 110,205 | 4,177,221 | 14,870 | 189,215 | 1,272,664 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 2,530 | 74,310 | 2,937,465 | 19,210 | 171,415 | 892,420 |
| East Midlands | 1,980 | 58,070 | 2,932,098 | 14,395 | 137,890 | 957,729 |
| West Midlands | 1,815 | 64,210 | 3,539,068 | 14,205 | 159,615 | 1,123,476 |
| East of England | 1,420 | 53,455 | 3,766,594 | 11,250 | 140,720 | 1,251,082 |
| London | 1,515 | 88,805 | 5,853,688 | 12,470 | 130,980 | 1,050,443 |
| South East | 1,815 | 100,525 | 5,541,293 | 12,700 | 230,700 | 1,816,502 |
| South West | 2,235 | 67,510 | 3,022,736 | 16,635 | 189,510 | 1,139,279 |
Source: SALT collection, 2023-24, NHS England - See Table 12 in Data Tables.
Whilst in prison a detainee can request social care support. This route of access was made mandatory in the 2017-18 collection, although not all local authorities in England have a prison within their area. There were 9,620 (0.5% of all requests) requests for support via a prison route in 2023-24.
Route of access
Whilst requests for support have steadily increased over the last eight years, the proportions of requests for support by route of access have remained largely similar. The majority of all requests (78.5%, 1,638,155) originated from the community. The next highest category was discharge from hospital, where 18.9% (393,515) of all requests originated from. Planned entry, diversion from hospital, self-funders with depleted funds and prison referrals made up the remaining 2.6% of requests.
As seen in Figure 8 below, the proportion of requests differ by age group with a higher volume of 65 and over clients requesting support at the point of discharge from hospital.
Source: SALT collection, 2023-24, NHS England - See Table 9 in Data Tables. All other routes of access’ include ‘Planned Entry (Transition)’, ‘Diversion from Hospital Services’, ‘Self-funder with depleted funds’ and ‘Prison’.
Outcomes to requests for support
The outcome of the request for support can be categorised into three main support areas:
- short term care to maximise independence (ST-Max)
- long term care
- other support
13.1% requests resulted in completed episodes of receiving short term care to maximise independence and 8.2% of requests resulted in long term care support provided to the client. Figure 9 below shows how outcomes of the requests for support by new clients differed by age group in 2023-24.
These request for support outcomes can sometimes be difficult to interpret and should not be seen as reflecting on the performance of a local authority, but more as a statement about the nature of request for support that was made.
Figure 9: Overview of requests for support relating to Adult Social Care received by local authorities, 2023-24
Source: SALT collection, 2023-24, NHS England
Last edited: 2 December 2024 11:26 am