Respite Care Scotland, 2013

6. Background information on the collection of the data

6.1 Data Sources

Audit Scotland (2007/07 to 2008/09)

This data was provided to Audit Scotland by all Local Authorities in Scotland as one of the Statutory Performance Indicators (SPIs). The information was collected and published locally by each council in Scotland. Audit Scotland publishes information about the comparative performance of councils across Scotland in a compendium of all the data. These are available from www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/performance/index.php, but please note that all respite figures have been superseded with those presented in this publication.

Scottish Government (2009/10 to 2012/13)

The Scottish Government is now responsible for the collection of respite data. This follows Audit Scotland's decision to discontinue the collection of the SPI data for respite care.

6.2 Understanding the Statistics in this Report.

All information in this Statistics Release is based on a year from 1st April to 31st March.

In order to provide an estimate of total respite provision across Scotland, respite nights and respite hours have been converted into respite weeks. In order to calculate this, seven respite nights equal one respite week and 52.5 hours equal one respite week. This standard method was agreed by CoSLA and the Scottish Government.

In order to convert Direct Payments into respite weeks we have assumed that the cost of one week is £630 and the cost of one hour is £12.

The figures published in this Statistics Release were last published on 30 October 2012.

6.3 Changes to figures for previous years

As part of the collection of the 2011/12 data Local Authorities were given the opportunity to check their respite figures to ensure that they were correct and any large increases or decreases between years were questioned. This validation work has resulted in the following changes to the figures previously published.

Daytime respite

One Local Authority identified an error in the previously published overnight respite data and provided revised figures for the publication. They are

Fife - following a miscalculation of the overnight nights for 18-64 year olds, the 2011/12 figure for Fife has decreased from 12,560 to 10,250 in this publication. This has resulted in a decrease in the Scotland figure from 205,400 to 205,070.

6.4 Data Completeness

While every effort is made to ensure that data is recorded as accurately and as consistently as possible, the following issues should be noted for the 2012/13 figures published in this report:

Orkney: Due to issues with data submission, we are unable to publish 2012/13 data for Orkney. Last year's figures have been used as an estimate.

6.5 Comparability between 2011/12 and 2012/13 data

For 2012/13, Local Authorities were given the two options for submitting data for respite care:

1. Aggregated data. This is the method that has been used in previous years, however for 2012/13 local authorities were asked to give two sets of figures for 2012/13, one that is directly comparable to the data recorded for 2011/12, and another based on new guidance for 2012/13.

2. Individual level data as part of the wider Social Care Survey (the results from which are due to be published on 26 November 2013). This is based on new guidance and so is not directly comparable to 2012/13.

For this publication aggregated data comparable to 2011/12 has been used for 27 out of 32 local authorities. Individual level data based on new guidance has been used for 2 local authorities (Clackmannanshire and Stirling). Scottish Borders and Perth & Kinross submitted aggregated data for children aged under 18, with individual level data for adults. Edinburgh submitted aggregated data, but based on new guidance - figures that had previously converted the value of direct payments services being received into hours of care that had previously been included are now excluded. While this is figure is relatively small, it may be the cause of a slight decrease in respite weeks between 2011/12 and 2012/13 for Edinburgh. The 2012/13 figures presented in this report can therefore be treated as being broadly comparable to 2011/12, however should be treated with caution.

It is hoped that going forward, information based on the new guidance for 2012/13 will be published. There were several local authorities who's figures based on the new guidance differed from the old figures. These are detailed below:

Aberdeen City: 3,478 Respite weeks for 2012/13 (figure comparable to 2011/12 is 3,559).

Aberdeenshire: 6,447 Respite weeks for 2012/13 (figure comparable to 2011/12 is 8,309).

East Ayrshire: 5,424 Respite weeks for 2012/13 (figure comparable to 2011/12 is 6,719).

Eilean Siar: 1,162 Respite weeks for 2012/13 (figure comparable to 2011/12 is 1,301).

Midlothian: 5,090 Respite weeks for 2012/13 (figure comparable to 2011/12 is 5,084).

Shetland: 4,171 Respite weeks for 2012/13 (figure comparable to 2011/12 is 3,932).

West Lothian: 3,968 Respite weeks for 2012/13 (figure comparable to 2011/12 is 4,195).

6.6 Methodology used by Local Authorities

Local Authorities were issued with new guidance for Short Breaks (Respite Care) this year following recommendations made by the Short Breaks (Respite) review group. We expect all Local Authorities to implement the new guidance in the 2013/14 survey:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/RespiteCarenew

The collection of respite data is something that has proved to be very complex for Local Authorities to capture. This means that each Local Authority may use a variety of data collection methods and sources of information to collect the required information as specified in the guidance.

The data is collected from either management/financial information systems, from manual records or direct from private/voluntary respite suppliers and is most commonly a combination of these data sources.

The data will also incorporate a number of different services depending on the services available within a Local Authority, examples of the services included are;

• Day Care
• Home Care
• Short Breaks/Holiday breaks
• Direct payments

6.7 Reasons for large increases/decreases in respite provision

Any large increases or decreases (+/- 10%) in respite provision for overnight and daytime respite weeks were queried with the Local Authorities concerned. Some of the reasons identified for the increase or decreases within Local Authorities are detailed below:

Increases in provision

• Due to more play schemes being in operation.
• Due to a home based respite service for people aged 65 and older coming on stream.
• Due to under-estimating figures in previous years.

Decreases in provision

• Due to budget and staffing pressures within the Councils.
• Due to over-estimating figures in previous years.

6.8 Cost of respondent burden

To calculate the cost of respondent burden to this survey each Local Authority was asked to provide an estimate of the time taken in hours to extract the requested information and complete the survey form. The average time from 8 Local Authorities has then been used within the calculation below to calculate that the total cost of responding to this survey is £42,430.

Cost of responding (£)

=

(number of responses X median time it takes to respond in hours X hourly rate of typical respondent)

+

any additional costs experienced by data providers

6.9 Further information

Further details and analysis of the data presented in this Statistics Release are available on request from the address given below. The Statistics Release is available on the Internet by accessing the Scottish Governments web site: - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/Publications

Information at local authority level is shown in the annex to this Statistics Release.

Health Analytical Services Division

DG Health & Social Care: The Quality Unit
Basement Rear
St Andrews House
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

Contact: Steven Gillespie
Tel: 0131 244 3777
E-mail: SWStat@scotland.gov.uk

This statistics release was published on 29^th October 2013.