State of social care 2007: facts and figures

29 January 2008

Here are some facts and figures from our State of social care 2006-07 report. For more detail read the full report and appendices.

Summary of the state of social care in England

• There is an increasingly sharp divide between those people who benefit from the formal system of social care and those who are outside it.
• People qualifying for services arranged by their council are seeing improvements and, in some areas, early steps towards a redesigned system offering personalised care.
• But the picture can be very different for those people who are not eligible for council-arranged care, and there is little consistency as to who is ineligible both ithin and between councils.
• People ‘lost to the system’ because they are not eligible for council-arranged services and cannot purchase their care privately often struggle with fragile informal support arrangements and a poor quality of life.
• People who fund their own care are also disadvantaged, lacking advice and information about their care options and often largely invisible to local councils.
• Care services provided by councils, private and voluntary bodies are meeting more of the national minimum standards but improvement appears to have stalled.
• The Government’s proposed Green Paper on long-term care funding offers an important opportunity to establish a fair and sustainable social care system where people, whether they pay for their own care or not, as a minimum get good advice, an assessment of their situation, and access to high quality services.

Key facts and figures 2007

• As at March 2007, over 18,500 registered care homes, run by private and voluntary organisations and councils, provided almost 442,000 places to adults of all ages.
• 4,735 registered home care agencies, the majority privately run, provided support to people to live at home.
• At March 2007, 54,000 people (including parents caring for disabled children and young carers) used Direct Payments and at September 2007 around 1,000 people had an Individual Budget.
• During 2006-07, 23,699 older people used a service within the Partnerships for Older People Projects (POPP) programme.
• Over 3,500 children's services were regulated by CSCI during 2006-07.

Number of services and places

Registered services for adults 2007

Adults' and older people's services registered as at 31 March 2007

Registered services for children 2007

Children's services registered as at 31 March 2007

Overall performance

Adults' services 2007

Average percentage of national minimum standards met by adults' services as at 31 March 2007

Children's services 2007

Average percentage of national minimum standards met by children's services as at 31 March 2007