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4. Expenditure

4.1 Care Homes

From 1 July 2002, personal and nursing care services became free for people aged 65 and over resident in care homes. In practice this means that everyone aged 65 and over who has been assessed as requiring personal and/or nursing care services in a care home receives £145 per week for personal care and £65 per week for nursing care.

The expenditure data on free personal and nursing care relates only to self-funders who previously would have paid for all of their care. The figures therefore allow us to determine the additional cost to Local Authorities in Scotland, following the implementation of this policy, in relation to care homes.

Table 3 shows total expenditure on free personal and nursing care payments for the years 2003-04 to 2006-07. The figures published this year include overheads for all council areas and therefore differ from figures published in previous Statistics Releases.

• Expenditure on free personal care for self-funders in care homes has risen each year from £65 million in 2003-04 (first full year of the policy) to £76 million in 2006/07.
• Expenditure on free nursing care for self-funders in care homes has also risen each year from £18 million in 2003/04 (first full year of the policy) to £22 million in 2006/07.

Expenditure on Free Personal and Nursing Care payments to self-funders accounts for around a fifth of total net expenditure on Care Homes.

Table 3: Expenditure on Care Homes for Older People, 2003-04 to 2006-07

£Thousands

Source: Free Personal and Nursing Care Expenditure Survey, Local Government Finance LFR3.

4.2 Home care

From 1 July 2002, all personal care services provided to people in their own homes became free of charge. Prior to this date, local authorities had discretion to charge for these services and a variety of charging policies operated across the country. Any charges were subject to a financial assessment which meant that in practise many people received these services for free prior to the introduction of free personal care. With the introduction of free personal care these services became free for all clients. Local authorities can still charge for domestic services such as help with shopping or housework.

Since 2002, information has been collected on the cost of providing personal care services at home. It should be noted that these costs do not tell us the additional cost of this policy as many people would have received these services for free prior to 2002 as noted above. It is estimated that at least £64.5 million was spent by Local Authorities on providing personal care services in 2001-02, the year before the policy was introduced. Details of how this was estimated is available from: www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/care/17655/SutherlandReview/Reports-Used/Care-Cost-Sub-Group

• Total expenditure on personal care services at home increased from £129 million in 2003-04 (first full year of policy) to £224 million in 2006-07.
• Expenditure on personal care services accounted for 58% of overall net expenditure on home care services in 2003-4 rising to 73% in 2006-07.

Table 4: Expenditure on Home Based Services for Older People 2003-04 to 2006-07

£Thousands

Source: Free Personal and Nursing Care Expenditure Survey, Local Government Finance LFR3.

4.3 Older People Services

This final section looks at Free Personal and Nursing Care in the context of all local authority expenditure on older people services.

In 2003-04, local authorities spent just over £853 million on older people services, rising to over £1 billion in 2006-07, an increase of 20%.

In 2003-04, around a quarter of the overall net expenditure on older people services was on free personal and nursing care. This has risen to 31% in 2006-07 reflecting the increasing proportion of self-funders in care homes and the increasing proportion of home care clients requiring personal care services.

Table 5: Expenditure on Older People Services

£Thousands

Source: Free Personal and Nursing Care Expenditure Survey, Local Government Finance LFR3.

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