Personal Social Services: Expenditure and Unit Costs, England Edition 2011-12 Provisional Release

Gross current expenditure has been quoted within this summary unless otherwise stated. National level information is provided by type of service and service user in this summary. Trends are generally shown over a 5 year period where comparable and a 10 year comparison is made in the first bullet for total gross current expenditure.

Data on grants and unit costs are not comparable over 5 years so changes from last year are shown. Data at a Regional and CASSR level are available (together with a wealth of other social care data) from the online National Adult Social Care Intelligence Service (NASCIS). NASCIS provides a set of analytical, query and reporting options.

National expenditure

• Gross current expenditure[1] by CASSRs on adult social care in 2011-12 was £17.2 billion, this compares to £17.0 billion in 2010-11. This is a one per cent rise in cash terms but a decrease of one per cent in real terms[2]. Between 2006-07 and 2011-12 (five years) expenditure has increased by three per cent in real terms and by 33 per cent in real terms since 2001-02 (ten years).

• There has been a change in how services users funded as part of the Valuing People Now initiative[3] have been accounted for in 2011-12. Funding has transferred from the NHS to councils so the money is no longer included as income from the NHS and netted off gross current expenditure. In addition, there has also been additional monies given to CASSRs via the NHS for spending on social care services which will also benefit the NHS [4]. When expenditure in 2011-12 is adjusted to take account of these impacts, it is estimated that it has fallen since last year by between 2 per cent and 7 per cent in real terms [5].

Expenditure by service user

• Over half (52 per cent) of expenditure was on older people (aged 65 and over) in 2011-12. Expenditure on people aged 18-64 with learning disability accounted for 30 per cent, people aged 18-64 with a physical disability was nine per cent, and people aged 18-64 with mental health needs was seven per cent. Other adult services accounted for two per cent and less than one per cent was spent on asylum seekers and service strategy.

Expenditure by service

• The proportion of adult expenditure on residential care has decreased over the past five years (2006-07 to 2011-12), from 46 per cent to 44 per cent. Over the same period expenditure on day and domiciliary care has increased from 41 per cent to 45 per cent. The remaining 11 per cent of expenditure was spent on assessment and care management in 2011-12.

• Expenditure on Direct Payments for adults was £1.1 billion in 2011-12 compared to £360 million in 2006-07. This is an increase of around 210 per cent in cash terms and around 175 per cent in real terms from 2006-07. The percentage of expenditure used for Direct Payments for adults is increasing and equates to six per cent of gross current expenditure in 2011-12 compared to two per cent in 2006-07.

Expenditure by grants

• Grants for adults (excluding carers) amounted to £300 in 2011-12 which was a decrease of four per cent in cash terms and six per cent in real terms since 2010-11. Grants as a proportion of "provision by others" remained unchanged at two per cent.

Expenditure by unit costs

• The average cost per adult aged 18 and over supported in residential care, nursing care or intensively in their own home was £609 in 2011-12, a decrease of two per cent in cash terms from £623 in 2010-11 and five per cent in real terms.

Notes

1. Gross current expenditure has been quoted within this summary unless otherwise stated. This is the total expenditure minus capital charges and less all income except for client contributions.

2. GDP deflators are a measure of general inflation in the domestic economy which can be described as a measure of price changes over time. Previous year 'cash term' prices are inflated to the current reporting year prices and referred to as 'real terms'. (see Appendix A for more details)

3. See DH letter to Chief Executives PCTs and Councils (August 2008) for more details.

4. See pages 26 and 27 of the Quarter - Q2 2011/12 (external DH publication)

5. More details on this adjustment can be seen in appendix C.