Free Personal and Nursing Care was introduced in Scotland in 2002. This means that local authorities cannot charge for personal care services provided to people at home or in residential care if they are assessed as requiring that care and are over 65. Over 50,000 older people across Scotland currently benefit from the policy.

Local authorities can charge for other non-residential and domiciliary care services provided to people in their own homes. COSLA issues guidance on charging for non-residential social care services. The guidance states that a reasonable charging policy should leave service users with sufficient money to have a reasonable quality of life after the cost of their care and any extra costs arising from their disability are met.

Regulations are in place, supported by Scottish Government Guidance provided to local authorities, to ensure that residents only contribute to their residential care costs where they can afford to do so.

We have not undertaken an audit of the need for rented sheltered housing for older people.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing the need for housing and support services for their local populations, including older people. These needs should be reflected in their Local Housing Strategies.

The value of a home is not taken into account in the financial assessment for care at home and any nursing care provided is free at the point of delivery. A person’s home is only taken into account for residential care but is disregarded in certain circumstances. A care home resident may also defer the sale of a property.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of homes sold to pay for care since the implementation of free personal care.

This information was published by ISD Scotland on the 28 June 2010 in Care Homes Census 2010: Additional Analysis of Care Home Residents, including Gross Weekly Charge.

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Health-and-Social-Community-Care/Care-Homes/Census/

The average weekly charge in 2009-10 for publicly funded long stay Care Home residents was £465 per week without nursing care and £540 per week with nursing care in line with the rates agreed in the National Care Homes contract. Publicly funded residents will have capital of less than £23,500. The resident contributes to the care home fees from their pensions and any other income and the local authority funds the balance.

The average weekly charge for self-funding residents was £582 per week without nursing care and £657 per week with nursing care. Self funding residents will have capital, including property, worth £23,500 or more. The resident must meet his or her care costs in full (over and above any assessed entitlement to free personal and nursing care).

The average (median) length of stay in a Care Home in 2009-10 was 1.8 years.

The Scottish Government established and funds Care Information Scotland which is a website and helpline providing comprehensive information on community care services for older people. This service has information on how much care costs together with details of the financial assistance that may be available including: free personal and nursing care; how to access a pensions and benefit check, and which organisations can provide direct advice on money matters.

Each local authority has confirmed that their local arrangements for access to social care services and timescales for access to personal and nursing care services are consistent with the guidance on national eligibility criteria and waiting times for the personal and nursing care of older people. However, it is a matter for local authorities to decide how best to inform service users of locally delivered services.

The guidance is also available on the Care Information Scotland and Scottish Government websites.

No guidelines have been given to GPs on using the Active-B12 test for diagnosing and treating pernicious anaemia as this is not the generally used way of diagnosing this condition in NHSScotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-1767 on 5 August 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Options developed by the Obesity Treatment Subgroup were considered by the National Planning Forum at a meeting on 1 July 2011. Work is continuing to develop a planning framework for obesity treatment that will enable equitable access to weight management interventions.

The cost of investigating and issuing a Formal Adult Warning is a matter for individual police forces. The information requested is not held centrally.