By Bill Heaney
The number of people estimated to be waiting on a social care assessment to enable them to live independently at home or in the community was 6,508 on 3 March 2025.
The estimated number of people assessed and waiting for a care at home package was 2,873 on 3 March 2025.
Local Authorities such as West Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute councils provide social care services to enable people to live independently and at home or in a homely setting in their community. This includes people who are frail, have long term conditions or disabilities.
Care at Home services are planned and delivered by Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs), and are delivered through Local Authority in-house teams, independent providers, and the Third Sector. Each Partnership plans its services based on the needs of the local population and on the existing support services available in the Local Authority, such as housing services. Therefore, the services that come under the heading of Care at Home varies across the country.
HSCPs provide PHS with a weekly aggregate snapshot of the number of people waiting on a social care assessment and the number of people waiting on Care at Home services.
Details of known data issues are available in the Data Quality tab of the People requiring a social care assessment and Care at Home services Dashboard.
Comparison between Partnerships should be treated with caution as the services can vary in each area. All data are labelled as provisional and subject to revision each week. Figures may be revised when replacing missing data or when a data quality issue has been identified and rectified.
PHS has worked in collaboration with the Scottish Government and HSCPs to clarify the definitions of the items in this data collection to improve the consistency of recording. The definition changes came into effect from 15 January 2024.
Responding to new Public Health Scotland figures which show that 9,381 people are either waiting for a social care assessment or have been assessed and are waiting for a care at home package, an increase on last month, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said: “When so many people can’t get care at home or in the community, hospitals become overwhelmed and waiting times shoot up.
“For four years, the SNP wasted £30 million on a bureaucratic, ministerial power grab of social care which they have been forced to junk. That was money that could have paid the salaries of 1,2000 care workers.
“Scottish Liberal Democrats are the party of care. We want to see a new UK-wide minimum wage for care workers that is £2 higher, getting people the help they need and easing pressure across the health service.”