1.8 million new requests for adult social care last year
NHS Digital has revealed that local authorities received 1.8 million new requests for adult social care support in 2017-18, the equivalent of 5,100 new requests per day.
The figures show that requests were received from 1.3 million people, with those aged 65 and over accounting for 71.6 per cent of the requests and 20.1 per cent originating from a discharge from hospital. Similar to previous years, 77.1 per cent of the requests originated from the community.
The annual Adult Social Care Activity and Finance, England 2017-18 report also highlighted how gross current expenditure by local authorities on adult social care was £17.9 billion in 2017-18, an increase of £0.4 billion on the previous year. Furthermore, 77.9 per cent of total gross current expenditure was spent on long term care (residential, nursing or community care), an increase of £369 million on 2016/17 to £14 billion.
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