Community Care Statistics, Home help and care services for adults: England, 2008

During a sample week in September 2008:

• an estimated 4.1 million contact hours were provided to around 328,600 households (or 340,600 service users). This represents a 5 per cent increase in the number of contact hours since the 2007 figure of 3.9 million. The number of households and service users receiving home care have both fallen by 2 per cent from 334,500 and 346,800 respectively in 2007.
• 81 per cent of the total contact hours of home care were provided by the independent sector to 262,500 households. This compares with 78 per cent of contact hours of home care and 256,400 households in 2007.
• the average number of contact hours per household was 12.4, compared to 11.6 in 2007. This suggests that more intensive services are being provided for a smaller number of service users, continuing the trend seen over the last 10 years.
• the gross current annual expenditure on home care services was £2.7 billion in 2007-08, a decrease of 1 per cent in real terms from 2006-07.
• an estimated 9,600 households were receiving home care from both the CASSR directly and the independent sector: an 11 per cent decrease from the 2007 figure of 10,800.
• an estimated 105,000 households (32 per cent of all households receiving home care) received intensive home care in 2008 (defined as more than 10 contact hours and 6 or more visits during the week). This represents a 2 per cent increase from the 2007 figure of 103,100 households.
• in 2008, 54 per cent of households who received home care received more than 5 hours of care and 6 or more visits compared to 52 per cent in 2007.
• 12 per cent of households receiving care had only a single visit during the week compared with 13 per cent in 2007. In the majority of these cases (81 per cent) the single visit lasted 2 hours or less.