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Digital

National Statistics
Publication, Part of

Personal Social Services: Expenditure and Unit Costs, England - 2014-15, 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 2014 to 31 Mar 2015

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. This report contains final data from 152 CASSRs and relates to the period 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015; this report supersedes the provisional publication which was based on an earlier cut of the data and it should be noted that the figures within this report do differ from those reported in the provisional publication. These 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.
The data for this adult social care expenditure report has been sourced from a new collection; the Adult Social Care Finance Return (ASC-FR) has replaced the previous finance return (PSS-EX1) and reflects important aspects of the principles underpinning the transformation of social care. This is one of several collections which have changed as a result of proposals from the Zero Based Review (ZBR) and which draws on the new Equalities and Classifications Framework (EQ-CL).

This is the first year of the new ASC-FR collection and all 152 councils made a submission; although the impact of the change in data source and the introduction of the new Equalities and Classification framework have meant that many councils have experienced difficulties in completing parts of their returns. Challenges reported by councils have included: accurately  aligning expenditure and activity to the new primary support reasons and apportioning expenditure and activity to the new sections of the return.  Further information (including council details) on these and other data quality items can be found in Appendix B of this report and  caution should be exercised when evaluating the findings from this report. 

Gross current expenditure  has been quoted within this summary unless otherwise stated. National level information is provided by primary support reason, service area, care type and support setting in this summary.

Primary Support Reason has replaced Primary Client Groups from the previous PSS-EX1 return and will allow the service to better define the reasons why people need help or support.

A Client Group records the health condition that may result in the client having support needs, but does not describe the type of support required by the client. For example:

• An older person may have mild learning difficulties, but due to increasing frailty their primary support need may be for personal care support.
• Someone with a long term physical disability may develop mental health needs.

A Client Group puts those individuals into one, inflexible box for counting and monitoring purposes, and someone (usually the social worker) has to make decisions as to which one.
The new approach is that the Primary Support Reason is determined through assessment. As a client's support needs may change over time, the Primary Support Reason should be re-examined and, if required, updated as part of the client review process. The five PSRs within the return are:

• Physical Support
• Sensory Support
• Support with Memory and cognition
• Learning Disability Support
• Mental Health Support

A five year and ten year comparison is made in relation to gross current expenditure. However, changes in the financial reporting framework mean it is not possible to make direct comparisons between 2014-15 and previous years for the primary support reasons and service provision, with the exception of those items included in the bridging year data. Further information is provided in the introduction of this report.

Note: A new comparator file was added to this report on 05/07/2016.

 

Highlights

National expenditure

These figures are based on final data from the new ASC-FR data return. The data show gross current expenditure by CASSRs on adult social care in England in 2014-15 was £17.0  billion. This represents a one per cent decrease in cash terms from £17.2 billion in 2013-14, which is the equivalent of a three per cent decrease in real terms.

Over the five year period from 2009-10 , when the figure was £16.8 billion, expenditure has increased by one per cent in cash terms, a decrease of eight per cent in real terms. Over the ten year period from 2004-05, when the figure was £13.5 billion, expenditure increased by 26 per cent in cash terms, although this represents a small decrease of less than half of one per cent in real terms.

The new return in 2014-15 shows that £13.6 billion of gross current expenditure was spent on short and long term support  (combined); of which 53 per cent (£7.2 billion) was spent on people aged 65 and over, compared to 47 per cent (£6.4 billion) on people aged 18 to 64.

Expenditure on long term support

In 2014-15 £13.0 billion of gross current expenditure was spent on long term support of which 48 per cent (£6.2 billion) was spent on people aged 18 to 64 and 52 per cent (£6.8 billion) was spent on people aged 65 and over.

In 2014-15, 37 per cent (£6.2 billion) of gross current expenditure was spent on long term support for people aged 18 to 64; of which £4.4 billion  was spent on learning disability support, £1.2 billion on physical support, £597 million on mental health support, £51 million on support for memory and cognition and £50 million on sensory support.
For adults aged 18 to 64, long term support expenditure on residential care  amounted to £2.2 billion, whilst expenditure for supported living amounted to £1.1 billion and £944 million was spent on direct payments.

In 2014-15, 40 per cent (£6.8 billion) of gross current expenditure was spent on long term support for people aged 65 and over; of which £4.5 billion was spent on physical support, £1.2 billion on support with memory and cognition, £534 million on learning disability support, £494 million on mental health support and £136 million on sensory support.
For adults 65 years and over, long term support expenditure on residential care amounted to £3.0 billion, whilst expenditure on home care amounted to £1.4 billion and nursing care amounted to £1.3 billion.

Expenditure on short term support

In the new return for 2014-15, £587 million of gross current expenditure was spent on short term support of which 24 per cent (£142 million) was spent on people aged 18 to 64 and 76 per cent (£445 million) was spent on people aged 65 and over.

In 2014-15 one per cent (£142 million) of gross current expenditure was spent on short term support for people aged 18 to 64; of which £ 60 million was spent on learning disability support, £48 million on physical support, £29 million on mental health support, £3 million on sensory support and support with memory and £2 million on support for memory and cognition.

For people aged 65 and over, expenditure on short term support accounted for  three per cent (£445 million) of gross current expenditure; of which £374 million was spent on physical  support, £41 million on support with memory and cognition, £15 million on mental health support, £9 million on sensory support and £6 million on learning disability support.

Other Social Services Expenditure

In the new return for 2014-15, 20 per cent (£3.4 billion) of gross current expenditure was spent on other social services in total; of which nine per cent (£1.6 billion) of gross current expenditure was spent on social care activities and a further six per cent (£1.0 billion) was spent on commissioning and service delivery.

Bridging Year data

In order to allow for some time series comparisons this year's ASC-FR return contained a bridging year sheet. The items listed below are comparable  to the items collected in the old PSS-EX1 return and councils were asked to report the following for age groups 18-64 and 65 and over.

1. Grand Total gross expenditure and income
2. Total gross expenditure and income for adults aged 18 to 64
3. Total gross expenditure and income for adults aged 65 and over.

For adult social care  total expenditure amounted to  £19.2 billion in 2014-15, this represents a one per cent decrease in cash terms and a two per cent decrease in real terms compared to the £19.4 billion spent in the previous year.
For adults aged 18 and over total income amounted to £4.8 billion in 2014-15; this represents a seven per cent increase in cash terms and a six per cent increase in real terms compared to the £4.5 billion spent in the previous year.

For adults aged 18 to 64, total expenditure amounted to  £8.7 billion in 2014-15, this represents a four per cent decrease in cash terms and a five per cent decrease in real terms compared to the £9.0 billion spent in the previous year.

For adults aged 65 and over, total expenditure amounted to  £10.0 billion in 2014-15, this represents a one per cent increase in cash terms and a small decrease of less than half of one per cent in real terms, compared to the £9.9 billion spent in the previous year.

Unit costs

In 2014-15 the average cost per adult aged 18 and over, supported in long term residential care and nursing care was £666  per week. For adults aged 18 to 64 with a primary support reason of physical support the average cost for long term residential care and nursing care was £855  per week, compared to £540  per week for adults aged 65 and over. For adults aged 18 to 64 with a primary support reason of learning disability the average cost for long term residential care and nursing care was £1327  per week, compared to £881  per week for adults aged 65 and over. For home care, the average standard hourly rate was £29  for services provided in-house, compared to £14  for external provision.

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Last edited: 2 November 2018 2:23 pm