Free Personal and Nursing Care 2006-07

26 Aug 2008 04:56 PM

Scotland's Chief Statistician today published Free Personal and Nursing Care 2006-07 statistics. It gives a picture of the number of people benefitting from free personal and nursing care in Scotland, as well as how much is being spent on the policy.

Free personal and nursing care (FPNC) was introduced in Scotland on July 1, 2002. Prior to that date, people could be charged for personal care services provided in their own home and many residents in Care Homes had to fully fund their care from their own income and savings. This is the latest in a series of annual publications since the policy was introduced.

Some of the notable statistics included in the report are:

Care Homes

Self-funders in Care Homes who are assessed as requiring Free Personal and Nursing Care receive £145 per week for Free Personal Care and/or £65 per week for Free Nursing Care. There were around 9,400 people receiving Free Personal Care at the end of 2006-07, of which around two-thirds also received the Free Nursing Care payment
Between 2005-06 and 2006-07, Local Authority expenditure on Free Personal and Nursing Care for self-funding residents in care homes increased from £95.0 million to £97.4 million, a rise of 2.6%. This is in line with increasing numbers of self-funding residents in Care Homes

Home Care

People aged 65 and over who are assessed as requiring personal care services can no longer be charged for these services provided in their own home. There were nearly 41,000 people in Scotland receiving personal care services at the end of 2006-07
Expenditure on personal care services increased from £185 million in 2005-06 to £224 million in 2006-07, an increase of 21 per cent
Reasons for the increase in expenditure on personal care at home include a shift in the balance of care towards larger packages of care at home and an increasing proportion of home care clients requiring personal care services. In addition, the introduction of equal pay provision in local authorities has led to higher wage costs and in some areas the reimbursement of charges for meal preparation has led to higher costs for this year only

Since the introduction of Free Personal Care in July 2002:

people aged 65 or over who live in care homes and are assessed as self-funders now receive a weekly payment of £145 towards their personal care, and a further £65 if nursing care is also required. The remainder of the care homes fees - the 'hotel' costs - they still fund themselves. People aged under 65 can also receive £65 towards nursing care
people aged 65 and over can no longer be charged for personal care services provided in their own home. They can however be charged for domestic services such as help with shopping or housework but any charge would be subject to a financial assessment

This data has been published annually since the introduction of Free Personal Care in 2002, although this is the first year that this has been published as National Statistics. This reflects better quality and consistency across local authorities for this latest data.