Free Personal and Nursing Care uptake and self-funding resident data: FOI release

Information requested

For each financial year from 2002–03 to the most recent available year:

1. The total number of care home residents aged 65+ who were not fully funded (i.e., self-funding accommodation costs), by local authority.

2. The total number of these residents who received FPNC payments (personal care and/or nursing care), by local authority if possible (or national total if not).

3. Any existing analysis, audit, or briefing comparing these two figures (i.e., uptake rates) or identifying under‑claiming/self‑funders not receiving FPNC.

4. Any policies, guidance, or internal communications relating to reconciling these figures (e.g., monitoring uptake or identifying gaps).

Fallback (if full data unavailable or exceeds cost limits)

If you cannot provide the full time series or full local breakdown, please instead provide:

• The most recent year available with national totals,
• Any existing summaries or briefing notes on uptake rates (even if partial),
• And confirmation of whether such reconciliations have ever been undertaken.

Response

Some of the information you have requested is available from Public Health Scotland, further details are provided below. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.

The total number of care home residents aged 65+ who were not fully funded (i.e., self-funding accommodation costs), by local authority.

The Scottish Care Home Census (SCHC) (published by Public Health Scotland) contains information about care home residents and includes funding category data. This information is publicly available at local authority level for 2014 to 2024 (Data can be found on the funding and charges tab): Care home census for adults in Scotland - Statistics for 2014 to 2024 - Care home census for adults in Scotland - Publications - Public Health Scotland

As this data is held not held by SG, data for years prior to 2014 would need to be requested directly from PHS (PHS.FOI@phs.scot). Please also note that as the care home census is voluntary, not all Care Homes return the requested data, and PHS use estimation techniques to bring the dataset completion up to 100%. For example for 2024, funding information was provided for 82% of long stay residents, PHS used information available to estimate for the remaining 18%.

Further information on data quality, completeness and estimation techniques can be found alongside the report on the PHS publication page linked above.

The 2025 Scottish Care Home Census is scheduled for release on 30 September 2025.

The total number of these residents who received FPNC payments (personal care and/or nursing care), by local authority if possible (or national total if not).

While the SCHC collects data on care home residents and funding source, it does not collect data on whether residents receive FPNC payments.

Data returns collecting aggregate information on Free Personal and Nursing Care (FPNC) payments are submitted annually to Scottish Government by Local Authorities (LAs). They include a count of selffunders in care homes who are in receipt of a FPNC payment, plus anyone in a care home whose place in the home is partly or fully funded by the LA. They do not include any data on the number of selffunders in care homes who are not in receipt of a FPNC payment. They also do not include any data on the number of care home residents who are in receipt of FPNC and whose place in the care home is either fully or partly-funded by the LA.

The number of self-funders aged 65+ within Care Homes who were receiving FPNC payments is already publicly available via our website: Free personal and nursing care - gov.scot. Table 2a contains a snapshot as at the last week of the financial year (most recent, last week of financial year 2023-24). Data is available at local authority level back to 2003/04. For your convenience, a table is attached with data from 2003/04 to 2023/24.

FPNC data comes from LAs, and while we do receive returns from all 32 LAs, not all LAs can return all of the information requested. Where this is the case, we estimate figures based on previous data (where possible). In 2023-24, two LAs were unable to provide data on the number of self-funders aged 65+ within Care Homes receiving FPNC and data for those two LAs has therefore been estimated. Data are aggregate and no information is collected for individuals.

Please note that combining the data from the FPNC collection with that from the Care Home Census will not provide an accurate count of self funders not in receipt of FPNC payments. The data come from different providers and FPNC is taken as all persons in receipt of FPNC payments during the last week of the year while SCHC is taken as a snapshot as at 31 March each year.

Any existing analysis, audit, or briefing comparing these two figures (i.e., uptake rates) or identifying under‑claiming/self‑funders not receiving FPNC.

We do not have the information requested. From the data currently available from the Scottish Care Home Census and the FPNC collection, it is not possible to identify individuals who are fully selffunding their care home place and are not in receipt of a FPNC payment.

Any policies, guidance, or internal communications relating to reconciling these figures (e.g., monitoring uptake or identifying gaps).

We do not have the information requested. As indicated above, from the data currently available from the Scottish Care Home Census and the FPNC collection, it is not possible to identify individuals who are fully self-funding their care home place and are not in receipt of a FPNC payment.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202500478507 - Information released - Annex

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