HC Deb 12 March 1999 vol 327 cc411-2W
Mr. Dorrell

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will state for the latest available year and the two preceding years the(a) number of residents of registered nursing homes, (b) number of residents of registered care homes, (c) average weekly cost of a place in a registered nursing home, (d) average weekly cost of a place in a registered care home, (e) proportion of residents of nursing homes who receive assistance with the cost of their care from public funds, and the total cost of that assistance and (f) proportion of residents of care homes who receive assistance with the cost of their care from public funds and the total cost of that assistance. [74949]

Mr. Hutton

The table contains figures on the number of residents in nursing and residential care homes for the last year available (1997) and the two preceding years together with information on the average weekly cost of a placement. We do not have data on the proportion of residents supported from public funds but the table contains data on numbers of supported residents and total expenditure on residential and nursing home care by social services and the number of people receiving help with the cost of their care through Income Support.

1995 1996 1997
(a) Numbers of residents— Nursing—all (local authority support) 147,584 145,864 147,381
(a) Numbers of residents— Nursing—Elderly (local authority support) 135,469 133,387 137,755
(b) Numbers of residents— Residential—all (LA support) 288,640 292,719 278,000
(b) Numbers of residents— Residential—Elderly (LA support) 225,624 226,329 194,000
(c) Estimated average weekly fee level per resident per week for Residential Home Care for older people £239 £247 £252
(d) Estimated average weekly fee level per resident per week for Nursing Home Care for older people £333 £338 £352
(e) Social Services Gross expenditure on Residential Care older people (£000) £1,330,734 £1,489,084 £1,699,722
(f) Social Services Gross expenditure on Nursing Care for older people (£000) £370,450 £566,013 £754,600
(g) Numbers in receipt of Income Support for Residential and Nursing Home care and resident before 1993 205,000 168,000 not available

1995 1996 1997
(h) Income Support expenditure on Residential and Nursing Home care for people resident before April 1993 (£000) £1,955,000 £1,624,000 not available

Notes:

All expenditure figures are as at 31 March for each year.

Due to poor response from care homes, the residential figures for 1997 have been estimated and are not as reliable as previous years data.

The significant reduction in elderly residents between 1996 and 1997 can be attributed to better assignment of these residents to other client groups such as EMI, Learning Disabilities and Others. Average weekly cost figures for residential/nursing homes are from Lang and Buisson Income Support expenditure is based on a 5 per cent. sample of all cases and as such is subject to a degree of sampling error.