Cost of free personal care and nursing care in Scotland exceeds £900 million

New figures from the Scottish Government reveal the cost of providing free personal and nursing care has risen to over £900 million.

The amount spent providing care for both people living at home who need extra help and older people in care homes has increased in 2023-24.

The estimated cost to councils of providing free personal and nursing care to those who need it was £915.21 million.

The costs come as the Scottish Government faces difficulties in its push to create a National Care Service; Councils, unions and opposition parties at Holyrood opposed the legislation needed to make this happen.

Meanwhile, Scottish Government figures have revealed local authorities spent an estimated £473 million providing personal care services to people aged 65 and over in 2023-24; this was up 7% on the £444 million estimated the previous year.

With the flagship policy being extended to help people under 65 as a result of Frank’s Law, named after former Dundee United footballer Frank Kopel, who died of early-onset dementia, the cost of providing home care services to this age group has also increased.

Last year, it was estimated that 16,960 people aged 18 to 64 received home care services; This number is up 15% on those who first qualified for this benefit in 2018-19.

Meeting such needs will cost councils an estimated £266 million in 2023-24, up 3% on the previous year; Those aged 18 to 64 who need assistance and are still living at home receive an average of 20.4 hours of personal care each. week.

This compares with the average 9.8 hours of care received by people aged 65 and over, helping an estimated 47,130 people in this age group stay in their own homes.

Meanwhile, figures also showed councils are spending an estimated £174 million in 2023-24 on free personal care and maintenance payments for self-funded people aged 65 and over in care homes.

The bill for this was 10% higher than the £157 million spent the previous year; More than three-quarters (77%) of costs went to providing free personal care, with the remaining 23% going to unpaid nursing care.

An additional £2.21 million was spent on free personal and nursing care for self-funded care home residents aged 18 to 64; this was up 15% from the 2022-23 total.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We want people to live safely and independently in their homes for as long as possible.

“To support them in doing this, free personal care has been offered to all residents over the age of 65 in Scotland for over 22 years.

“When the Frank Act came into force in 2019 it was extended to people under 65 with debilitating conditions and we are pleased to see so many people in Scotland exercising their statutory right to free personal care.”