Department of Health

Website of the Department of Health

Please note that this website has a UK government access keys system.

Analysis of targets for older people

  • Last modified date:
    8 February 2007

The following analysis on targets for intensive home care and waiting times for assessment and receipt of services was produced for the Older People Services Programme Board. These targets have been developed by the social care policy division specialising in older people's services to improve access to social care services, and to ensure that older people stay independent and healthy.

The charts are provided at local authority level, to assess the progress being made towards the targets, and are colour coded according to the 'type of authority' (i.e. Shire, Unitary, Metropolitan, Inner London, Outer London). They can be downloaded from the links below the overview for each target:

  • Public Service Agreement (PSA) on home care
  • Waiting time to assessment
  • Waiting time to provision of services

Target - Public Service Agreement (PSA) on home care

Improve the quality of life and independence of older people so that they can live at home wherever possible, by increasing by March 2006 the number of those supported intensively to live at home to 30% of the total being supported by social services at home or in residential care. This target has now been extended to 34% by March 2008.

The PSA is based on Performance Assessment Framework Performance Indicator (PAF PI) AO/B11 (intensive home care as a percentage of intensive home and residential care), but calculated for older people rather than all adults.

Sources: Home Help and home care services for adults (HH1) return, Supported Residents, adults (SR1) return.

See link below for charts in Excel format, featuring:

2002/3

  • Figure 1 Percentage change in the number of households receiving intensive Home Care between 2001 and 2002 (in descending order of PSA values in 2001/02)
  • Figure 2 PSA Value: Number of older people receiving "intensive or extra" home care as a percentage of all older people supported intensively at home or residential/nursing care in 2001/2002 (descending order), with the 2002/03 values outlined. 

2003/4

  • Figure 1 Percentage change in the number of households receiving intensive Home Care between 2002 and 2003 (in descending order of PSA values in 2002/03)
  • Figure 2 PSA Value: Number of older people receiving "intensive" home care as a percentage of all older people supported intensively at home or residential/nursing care in 2002/2003 (descending order), with the 2003/04 values outlined. 

Target - Waiting time to assessment

By December 2004 all assessments of older people will begin within 48 hours of first contact and will be completed within 4 weeks (with 70% within 2 weeks).

This target cannot be measured exactly until data is available for 2003/04 (due to be published in November 2004). However some data is available on measuring time from the first contact to completed assessment.

Source: Form A7 in the Referrals Assessments and Packages of Care for Adults (RAP) return.

See link below for charts in Excel format, featuring:

2001/2

  • Figure 1 Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with assessments completed on contact day or following day, 2001/02
  • Figure 2 Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with assessments completed within 2 weeks of first contact, 2001/02
  • Figure 3  Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with assessments completed within 6 weeks of first contact, 2001/02

2002/03

  • Figure 1a Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with assessments completed on contact day or following day, 2002/03
  • Figure 1b Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with assessments completed on contact day or following day in 2001/02 (descending order), with 2002/03 values outlined.
  • Figure 2a Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with assessments completed within 2 weeks of first contact, 2002/03
  • Figure 2b Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with assessments completed within 2 weeks of first contact 2001/02 (descending order), with 2002/03 values outlined.
  • Figure 3a  Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with assessments completed within 6 weeks of first contact, 2002/03
  • Figure 3b  Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with assessments completed within 6 weeks of first contact 2001/02 (descending order), with 2002/03 values outlined.

Target - Waiting time to provision of services

By December 2004 following assessment, all social services will be provided within four weeks (70% within two weeks).

Data to measure this target will not be available until November 2004 when the 2003/04 data is published. As a proxy for this target the analysis below shows the distribution of waiting times from first contact to receipt of first service. The data is collected for the current PAF AO/D43 target, that time from first assessment to first service is longer than six weeks. This does not cover receipt of all services and measures the time from first contact rather than end of assessment.

Source:  Form P5 in the Referrals Assessments and Packages of Care for Adults (RAP) return.

See link below for charts in Excel format, featuring:

2001/2

  • Figure 1 Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with first service received within 2 weeks of first contact, 2001/02
  • Figure 2 Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with first service received within 6 weeks of first contact, 2001/02
  • Figure 3 Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with first service received within12 weeks of first contact, 2001/02

2002/3

  • Figure 1a Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with first services received within 2 weeks of first contact, 2002/03
  • Figure 1b Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with first service received within 2 weeks of first contact 2001/02 (descending order), with 2002/03 values outlined.
  • Figure 2a Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with first service received within 6 weeks of first contact, 2002/03
  • Figure 2b Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with first service received within 6 weeks of first contact 2001/02 (descending order), with 2002/03 values outlined.
  • Figure 3a Percentage of new clients aged 65 or over with first service received within 12 weeks of first contact, 2002/03

For further details contact:

Kate Anderson
Information Centre for health and social care
Skipton House
80 London Road
London SE1 6LH.Tel: 020 7972 5582
Fax: 020 7972 5660

Additional links

Help viewing PDFs

Help viewing PDFs

Useful tips to ensure you get the most from PDFs and the free Reader program. Topics covered include accessibility, troubleshooting and searching files.

Access keys