Scottish Government

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A Scottish Executive National Statistics Publication

Introduction

The purpose of this Statistics Release is to present national figures on Direct Payments made by Scottish Local Authorities.

The latest figures apply to payments made during the period 1 ^st April 2004 to 31 ^st March 2005 under section 12B of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.

Direct Payments are for self-directed community care whereby eligible people purchase and manage for themselves some or all of the care they have been assessed as needing. They are one way of increasing the flexibility, choice, and control people have over the care they receive, so that they can live more independently in their communities.

Direct payments have been available to disabled people aged 18-64 since April 1997, and to disabled people aged 65 and over since July 2000. Since 21 December 2001 they have also been available to disabled 16 and 17 year olds and disabled parents for children's services. From 1 June 2003 it became a duty for local authorities to offer direct payments in place of providing services to all eligible disabled people aged 16 and over and to parents (or those with parental responsibility) for disabled children aged 15 and under.

The information is derived from returns made to the Scottish Executive by Scottish Local Authorities. The background information note on page 3 conveys further details relating to the collection of direct payments data. Charts are shown on pages 1 to 3 of the publication and data tables are shown in the appendix.

CHART 1:
Number of people receiving direct payments 2001-2005

Main Points

• The number of people in receipt of direct payments has increased from 207 in 2001 to 1,438 in the year to 31 March 2005.
• Chart 1 shows the number of direct payment recipients each year.
• Over 40 per cent of people who received direct payments in 2005 were those aged 18-64 with physical disabilities.
• Chart 2 shows a summary of payments by age and client group.
• The value of payments has increased by nearly £11.6 million, from £2.1 million in 2001 to over £13.7 million in 2005.
• Chart 3 shows the value of direct payments made each year.
• Almost a third of people who received direct payments in 2005 were aged 65 or over, compared to only 7 per cent in 2001.
• Chart 6 shows the age profile of clients from 2001-2005.

CHART 2:
Number of people receiving direct payments, 2005

Of the 1,438 direct payments made during the year to 31 March 2005, 65 per cent (935 payments) were made to people with physical disabilities. These payments amounted to almost £9.7 million, approximately 70 per cent of the total amount paid.

Chart 2, above, and Table 2 in the appendix shows a breakdown of the number of clients by age and client group in 2005.

CHART 3:
Value of direct payments, 2001-2005

The total value of direct payments has steadily increased from 2001, and £13.7 million was spent in the year to 31 March 2005.

CHART 4:
Average value of a direct payment, 2005

The average value of a direct payment received in 2005 was £9,500 per client. Those who received a direct payment due to a physical disability received the highest average payment (£10,300) and those with learning disabilities received the lowest (£7,600).

Table 3 shows the average payment per client broken down by client group.

CHART 5:
Average value of a direct payment, 2001-2005

The average value of a direct payment has slightly increased in 2005 to £9,500 per client, after a decrease in preceding years.

Table 3 shows the average value of a direct payment by client group from 2001 to 2005.

CHART 6:
Percentage of people receiving direct payments by age, 2001-2005

The age profile of direct payment clients has changed since 2001, with a greater proportion of recipients now aged 65 or over. In 2001 only 7 per cent of recipients were in this age group, compared to almost a third of all clients in 2005.

In the year to 31 March 2005, just over 1,000 payments (70% of the total) were made to disabled people aged under 65. Direct payments have been available to disabled people aged 65 and over since July 2000 and 428 people in this age group (30% of the total) received payments in the latest year. Note that from 1 April 2005 eligibility was extended to older people aged 65 and over assessed as needing care services due to frailty or old age, but this will not be reflected in the present figures.

Table 4 shows the age profile of clients from 2001 to 2005.

There were slightly more females than males in receipt of direct payments in 2005, 794 compared to 644.

Local Authority Analysis

All Local Authorities made direct payments during the year to 31 March 2005.

Fife council made the most payments (15 per cent of the Scotland total) and these payments amounted to over £2 million. However the City of Edinburgh contributed the greatest value overall, at almost £2.5 million (almost a fifth of the total amount paid). Inverclyde had the smallest number of clients with only three receiving payments.

All but one Local Authority made more direct payments in 2005 than in the previous year - only Angus made fewer.

The average value of a payment increased in 20 of 32 Local Authorities - Midlothian saw the largest increase from an average of £4,300 per client in 2004 to £13,100 in the latest year.

Chart 8 and Table 5 show that Orkney has the largest rate of direct payment clients per 10,000 of population (20.7). Although Fife has most clients it has only the fifth largest rate per population.

Table 1 shows the number and value of direct payments made in 2001-2005 by client group and local authority.

CHART 7:
Number of people receiving direct payments, 2005

CHART 8:
Rates of clients per 10,000 population, 2005

Background information on the Direct Payments Survey, 2005

The Direct Payments survey began in 2001 and collects information on Direct Payments from all Local Authorities in Scotland.

The survey asks for the number of clients receiving direct payments, split by age, gender and client group.

All 32 local authorities provided information.

Some column totals in the tables in this document may not exactly equal the sum of their component parts due to the effects of rounding.

Further Information

Further details and analysis of the data presented in this Statistics Release are available on request from the address below. The Statistics Release is also available on the Internet by accessing the Scottish Executive web site ( www.scotland.gov.uk/stats).

Contact: Steven Gillespie
Tel: 0131 244 3777
Fax: 0131 244 5427
E-mail SWstat@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Further information on Direct Payments is available from the Direct Payments Scotland website ( www.dpscotland.org.uk)

This statistics release was published on 13 ^th September 2005

APPENDIX

Table 1: Number of Direct Payments and value of payments by local authority, 2001-2005
Table 2: Number of Direct Payments and value by age and client group, 2005
Table 3: Average value of Direct Payments by client group, 2001-2005
Table 4: Age profile of direct payments clients, 2001-2005
Table 5: Number of Direct Payment Clients by Local Authority and Rate per 10,000 of population, 2005
Table 6: Number of Direct Payment Clients by client group and Local Authority, 2005