New figures from the Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs) in England.
Headlined below are some of the Key Findings giving the scale and types of referrals :
The full report can be found at Community Care Statistics: Social Services Activity, England 2014-15
-
There were 1,846,000 requests for support from new clients actioned in 2014-15[1].
-
Of these, 72 per cent (1,327,000) were from clients aged 65 and over; the remaining 28 per cent of clients (519,000) were aged 18-64.
The majority of these new requests for support, (1,460,000 clients, or 79 per cent), came through the Community. A further 18 per cent (333,000 clients) had been discharged from hospital.
For those receiving a completed instance of this form of support, the most common Primary Support Reason was Physical Support: Personal Care Support (70 per cent, or 178,000 requests).
After receiving Short Term Support, 26 per cent (65,000 clients) went on to receive Long Term Support, of which 93 per cent (60,000 clients) received this support in the Community.
890,000 clients accessed Long Term Support during 2014-15; of these, 659,000 were accessing the service at year end. 485,000 clients at year end had been in receipt of this Long Term Support for more than 12 months.
The most common Primary Support Reason for Long Term Support (received by 51 per cent or 450,000 clients), was Physical Support – Personal Care support.
Learning Disability support then followed, received by 16 per cent of clients and Mental Health support for 12 per cent.
86,000 clients were accessing Long term Support (Nursing) in 2014-15 with 194,000 clients accessing Residential support. These two settings supported 32 per cent of all clients accessing Long Term Support last year. The remaining 609,000 clients (68 per cent) were supported in the Community, most (350,000 clients, or 39 per cent) through a CASSR managed personal budget.
Clients aged 65 and over account for two-thirds (68 per cent) of all clients accessing Long Term Support. Within this age group, nearly two-thirds (64 per cent) accessing Long Term Support during 2014-15 required Physical Support – Personal Care Support. Among those clients aged 18 to 64, the most common Primary Support Reason was Learning Disability support, accounting for 43 per cent of the age group.
There were 334,000 instances of support being provided direct to carers, of which 6,000 (one per cent) requests for carer support related to carers aged under 18. For 24 per cent of all requests for carer support, no direct support was provided.
-
As of 31st March 2015, there were 12,000 clients with Autism and 5,000 clients with Asperger’s Syndrome (combined, they account for three per cent of all clients receiving Long Term Support at year end). These clients are predominantly aged between 18 and 64; 96 per cent of the 12,000 clients with Autism and 97 per cent of the 5,000 clients with Asperger’s Syndrome were in this age band.