For time periods up to March 2002, statistical information on private nursing homes was collated by ISD and is published here, whilst statistical information on residential homes was collected and is published, together with information on private nursing homes, by the Scottish Executive.

From April 2002 statistical information on care homes, which include both former private nursing homes and former residential homes, is being collected and is published by the Scottish Executive Community Care Group .  

The Care Homes area is part of the wider topic area of Joint Future, which covers joint working between Local Authorities, NHSScotland and other organisations. 

From April 2002 nursing homes and residential homes became care homes.

• Until March 2002, each private nursing home and residential home was regulated either by a local authority or by a health board.
• From April 2002, all care homes, comprising both former nursing homes and former residential homes, are regulated by the Care Commission

The annual censuses, ISD(S)34, collated by ISD for private nursing homes, and R1, collected by the Scottish Executive for residential homes, have been discontinued; a new census (SCHC1 and SCHC2) has been introduced to collect information, from April 2002, initially for the year ending March 2003, and thereafter on a six monthly basis, on all care homes.  Details of the forms  from the Scottish Social Work Statistical Liason Group website.

The following are links to the Scottish Executive Reports:

Care Homes, Scotland - September 2003 

Care Homes, Scotland - March 2004 

Care Homes, Scotland - March 2005 

Care Homes, Scotland - September 2005 

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Residential Homes

Information on residential care homes has been collected by the Social Work Statistics Group at the Scottish Executive and is published in Community Care Statistics and Vacancy Monitoring Report at Community Care Statistics Website

Private Nursing Homes

The Private Nursing Homes described here were, up to 31 March 2002, registered under the terms of the Private Nursing Homes Registration (Scotland) Act 1938 (as amended), or the Mental Health Act 1960/1984. 

For a number of years an annual census ISD(S)34 has been completed by each nursing home, giving information on:

• the home (name, address, capacity, and whether private, voluntary or charitable)
• the type of service the home supplied,
• numbers of residents, admissions, discharges and deaths,
• numbers of residents by client group and age
• numbers of nursing staff, vacancies, leavers and joiners.
• 2002 (revised) new - published 28 October 2003
• 1997-2002 (revised) new - published 28 October 2003

Notes on the Data

Up to year ending March 2001, published figures are based on ISD(S)34 census returns submitted by nursing homes and collated by health boards; figures for year ending March 2002 are based on returns submitted by nursing homes directly to ISD.

Since these data were previously published, figures from year ending March 1997 onwards have been revised: quality assurance work has been undertaken and, additionally, for each of the approximately 10% of all homes which each year did not supply data, figures have been imputed from data for those years which were available, so that the data should now be considered to be complete for all homes. However, since some of the figures have been imputed, totals should be considered to be estimated rather than actual figures. These revised figures will show a more accurate estimate of overall nursing home capacity and activity.  However there may result in discontinuities between figures for earlier years (prior to year ending March 1997), for which it is not known how many homes failed to submit data, and those for later years.  For more detail on the numbers of homes for which data have been imputed see the footnotes to each table.

Hospices and private hospitals are also registered under the Acts.  These figures include information for hospices, but exclude information for private hospitals.

The classification of residents used in table 4 is based on an assessment, by the nursing home, of the most appropriate care group for each individual resident. This classification, designed collaboratively by health and social work interests, was introduced to the ISD(S)34 return in 1996/97.

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Links

On 30 June 2004 the Scottish Executive Community Care Group published a Statistics Release on care homes for adults in Scotland as at 30 September 2003. This publication includes final figures for 31 March 2003:

Care Homes, Scotland - September 2003 

Further information on Care Homes is also shown in the Scottish Executive publications Community Care Statistics  an annual publication which brings together information across the whole range of health and social care services for adults in Scotland, and Vacancy Monitoring Reports published here .

The Care Commission registers and inspects all care homes.