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

Gross current expenditure¹ 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 five-year period where comparable and a ten-year comparison is made for total gross current expenditure. Data on grants and unit costs are not comparable over five years, so only changes from the previous year are shown.

National expenditure

• Gross current expenditure by CASSRs on adult social care in 2011-12 was £17.2 billion, compared 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 terms². Over the five years between 2006-07 and 2011-12 real terms expenditure increased by three per cent. Over the ten-year period between 2001-02 and 2011-12 there was an increase in real terms expenditure of 33 per cent.
• There has been a change in how service users funded as part of the Valuing People Now initiative³ have been accounted for in 2011-12. Funding has transferred from the NHS to CASSRs so the money is no longer included as income from the NHS and netted off gross current expenditure. Further, additional monies have been given to CASSRs via the NHS for spending on social care services which will also benefit the NHS⁴. When expenditure in 2011-12 is adjusted to take account of these impacts, it is estimated that it has fallen since 2010-11 by between 2 per cent and 7 per cent in real terms⁵.

Expenditure by type of service user

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

Expenditure by type of service

• The proportion of expenditure accounted for by residential care has decreased over the five-year period 2006-07 to 2011-12, from 46 per cent to 44 per cent. Over the same period the proportion of expenditure accounted for by day and domiciliary care has increased from 41 per cent to 45 per cent. The remaining 11 per cent of expenditure in 2011-12 was spent on assessment and care management.
• 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. The percentage of expenditure accounted for by Direct Payments to adults has increased, equating to six per cent of gross current expenditure in 2011-12 compared to two per cent in 2006-07.

Grants

• Grants for adults (excluding carers) amounted to £300 million in 2011-12, 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.

Unit costs

• The average cost per week for each adult 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. For further detail see: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130106115404/http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_087149.pdf
4. For further detail see (pages 26 and 27): www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_131980.pdf.
5. Further detail about this adjustment is available in Appendix C.