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Digital

National Statistics
Publication, Part of

Personal Social Services: Expenditure and Unit Costs, England - 2013-14, Final release

National statistics, Official statistics, Accredited official statistics
Publication Date:
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
Country, Regions, Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs), Ambulance Trusts
Date Range:
01 Apr 2013 to 31 Mar 2014

Summary

This summary provides information about the money spent on adult social care by the social services departments of Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs) in England. It contains information taken from CASSR administrative systems used to record personal social services expenditure and income. The data are used by central government for public accountability, policy monitoring and national accounts, and by local authorities to assess their performance in relation to their peers.
This report combines data from 152 CASSRs provided via the Personal Social Services: Expenditure and Unit Costs return (PSS-EX1) and relates to the period 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014. Information within this report is based on final data for 2013-14 and supersedes that contained within the provisional report published in September 2014.

Gross current expenditure[1]  has been quoted within this summary unless otherwise stated. National level information is provided by client type and service area in this summary. Trends are generally shown over a five year period where broadly comparable and a ten year comparison is made in relation to gross current expenditure. Data on grants and unit costs are broadly comparable over a three year period only.
Due to changes in the composition of social care funding and expenditure over time, caution should be exercised when considering long term trends. For further information see Appendix B. In order to account for some of these changes, information about expenditure on adult social care between 2008-09 and 2013-14, from sources including CASSRs and the NHS, is provided in Appendix C.

For 2014-15, the data for the adult social care expenditure report will be sourced from a new data collection;  the Adult Social Care Finance Return (ASC-FR). This collection replaces the existing finance (PSS-EX1) collection as a result of proposals from the Zero Based Review (ZBR). The current activity returns, RAP & ASC-CAR are also being replaced by a new Short and Long Term Support (SALT) collection, again as a result of proposals from the ZBR. They have been developed by stakeholder groups, which included colleagues from  councils. The ASC-FR and SALT collections will both draw on a new Equalities and Classifications Framework (EQ-CL) and will include some bridging data with previous collections to enable time series comparisons for key expenditure data items.

As this is the last time the report will be based on PSS-EX1 data, The HSCIC has also published an Expenditure and Unit Costs Compendium which provides national data over a ten year period from the PSS-EX1 collection, in an excel format. The data are already in the public domain through the annual publications. These data are from 2003-2004 to 2013-14 and where available provide breakdowns for service and client types. The compendium tables are available, along with our other Appendix tables, via the HSCIC website.

Footnote

1. Gross current expenditure is total cost excluding capital charges, minus all income except client contributions.

Note:

Hackney Council has notified the HSCIC that the £14,332,000 attributed to expenditure from the Supporting People grant for their council was included in error. This figure does not include any social care expenditure, and it is entirely housing related, which is not collected in the PSS-EX1 return. Their Total Net Expenditure should therefore be £74,569,000 for 2013-14. This should be taken into consideration when using these figures at a council level. The impact at a national level is minimal.

Highlights

Gross current expenditure by CASSRs on adult social care in England in 2013-14 was £17.2 billion. This represents an increase of half of one per cent in cash terms from 2012-13, which is the equivalent of a one per cent decrease in real terms[2].

Over the five year period from 2008-09 , when the figure was £16.1 billion, expenditure has increased by seven per cent in cash terms; a decrease of three per cent in real terms. Over the ten year period from 2003-04 , when the figure was £12.5 billion, expenditure increased by 38 per cent in cash terms and eight per cent in real terms (£15.9 billion).

In 2013-14 the proportions of expenditure by client type have seen slight variations to those recorded in 2012-13. 51 per cent[5] (£8.8 billion) of expenditure in 2013-14 was on older people (those aged 65 and over), compared to 52 per cent in 2012-13.

Expenditure on people aged 18 to 64 with learning disabilities accounted for 31 per cent (£5.4 billion) of gross current expenditure, compared to 30 per cent in 2012-13.

Expenditure on people aged 18 to 64 with physical disabilities accounted for nine per cent (£1.6 billion), the same proportion as 2012-13. Six per cent (£1.1 billion) of expenditure was spent on people aged 18 to 64 with mental health needs, compared to seven per cent in 2012-13.

Other adult services accounted for two per cent (£260 million) and less than one per cent was spent on asylum seekers (£10 million) and service strategy (£50 million) combined; proportions for other adult services, asylum seekers and service strategy are unchanged from 2012-13.

For 2013-14 the proportion of expenditure spent on residential care was 43 per cent (£7.5 billion), a decrease from 44 per cent in both 2012-13 and 2008-09. Expenditure on day and domiciliary care increased to 46 per cent (£7.9 billion) in 2013-14, from 45 per cent in 2012-13 and 43 per cent in 2008-09. The remaining 11 per cent (£1.9 billion) of expenditure in 2013-14 was spent on assessment and care management, this proportion was unchanged to 2012-13, but represents a one per cent decrease from 2008-09.

The proportion of expenditure on direct payments has continued to rise; accounting for eight per cent in 2013-14, compared to seven per cent in 2012-13 and four per cent in 2008-09.

In 2013-14 £1.4 billion of expenditure was on direct payments compared to £1.2 billion in 2012-13; an increase of ten per cent in cash terms and eight per cent in real terms. Over the five year period from 2008-09 when the figure was £610 million expenditure on direct payments increased by 125 per cent in cash terms and 103 per cent in real terms.

Grants for adults aged 18 and over (excluding service strategy) reduced in 2013-14 to £260 million, from the real term figure of £300 million in 2012-13; a decrease of 12 per cent in real terms and ten per cent in cash terms. Over the three year period from 2010-11, when the real term figure for grants totalled £320 million, this represents a decrease of 19 per cent in real terms and 15 per cent in cash terms. Grants as a proportion of 'provision by others' remained unchanged, at two per cent over this period.

Footnotes

2. GDP deflators are a measure of general inflation in the domestic economy which can be described as a measure of price changes over time. Previous year 'cash term' prices are inflated to the current reporting year prices and referred to as 'real terms' (see Appendix A for more details).
3. From 2011-12 there was a change in the way that services for some clients with learning disabilities were funded. See Appendix B for further information about the impact of this change on the time-series.
4. 2003-04 figures include estimates for service strategy, asylum seekers assessment and care management apportioned to adult services.
5. Percentages above may not match due to rounding, figures below £1 billion are rounded to the nearest £10 million and figures over £1 billion are rounded to the nearest £100 million (excluding unit costs).

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Last edited: 2 November 2018 2:20 pm