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Community Care Statistics 2000: Home help/ home care services, England

  • Last modified date:
    8 February 2007

National Statistics on home help/home care services purchased or provided by local authorities in England, for a survey week in September 2000 were published in a Statistical Press Notice. Further information at the local level is presented here.

Main findings

During the survey week in September 2000

  • An estimated 2.8 million contact hours were provided to around 398,000 households (or 415,000 clients). Compared with 1999, this represents an increase in the number of contact hours of 4 per cent and a fall in the number of households receiving home help/home care of 6%. This suggests that Local Authorities are providing more intensive services for a smaller number of service users, continuing the trend seen in recent years.
  • Almost 19,000 households were receiving home help/home care from both the Local Authority directly and the independent sector.
  • Around 72,100 households (18% of households 1) received intensive home help/home care in 2000 (defined as more than 10 contact hours and 6 or more visits during the week). This represents a 5% increase from the 1999 figure of 68,700 2.
  • Around 36% of households received 6 or more visits and more than 5 hours of care. In 1999, around 34% of households receiving care had 6 or more visits and over 5 hours care.
  • 22% of households receiving care had only a single visit during the week compared with 24% in 1999. In the vast majority of cases the visit lasted 2 hours or less.
  • Around 56% of the total contact hours of home help/home care was provided by the independent sector to 190,000 households (around 19,000 of these households may also be receiving home care from Local Authorities directly). This reflects the increase of the commissioning of home help/home care by Local Authorities from the independent sector.

Between September 1992 and September 2000

  • The number of contact hours has increased by 65% while the number of households receiving services has decreased by 25%.
  • The proportion of contact hours provided by the independent sector has increased from 2% to 56%.
  • The average number of contact hours per household has more than doubled (from 3.2 hours in 1992 to 7.0 hours in 2000). Over the period, the proportion of households receiving over 5 contact hours and 6 or more visits has increased from 11% to 36%. Around half of households received 6 or more visits during the week in 2000, compared with 16% in 1992. The proportion of households receiving only one visit of 2 hours or less in duration has decreased from 42% in 1992 to 19% in 2000.

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