NPC Facts and Figures

Facts and Figures

A snapshot of social and long-term care provision in England shows the following :

Around 1m older people receive some form of care in their own home, but around 2.5m have care needs.
80% of those in need of care at home do not get it from the state.
The private and voluntary sector care providers receive around £9.3bn a year in public funding.
An estimated £5.9bn is spent by individuals on social care either through private contributions or through charges.
A huge unmet need and care gap exists between the services older people require and what they actually receive because services are being rationed. As a result, only those with high care needs qualify for assistance. This unmet need places an additional burden and strain on many relatives and friends who provide unpaid care (eg. 1.2m men and 1.6m women over 50 are unpaid carers).
All care in the home is means-tested, and individuals need an annual income of less than £13,000 to receive services free.
The charges for those with income above this level, vary widely depending on each local authority area, thus creating an unfair postcode lottery.

In 2003, out of 500,000 care places: 69% were in the private sector, 17% in the public sector and 14% in the voluntary sector.
Private care is worth around £6.9bn a year.
There are around 448,000 care home residents, 60% of which are self-funders.
1 in 4 care workers leave their jobs every year and this high turnover is almost entirely due to poor pay and conditions of employment.
Within care homes, only one member of staff is required to have an appropriate care qualification (but even they do not have to be situated on-site).
Those with assets (including the value of their property) of more than £23,000 must fund their own care. Those between £13,000 and £23,000 are means-tested and pay a proportion whilst those below £13,000 have their charges paid by their local authority.
In 2008, the average fees for care home residents across the UK were £34,528 per year for nursing care and £24,128 for residential care.
The average cost of food in residential care is £3.50 a day.
Nearly 150,000 dementia patients each year are given anti-psychotic drugs unnecessarily. The figure represents four in five of all the people who are being prescribed the drugs in care homes, hospitals and their own homes.