The number of people paid for by their council to live in a residential or nursing home fell by four per cent to 239,100 in the past year, according to a report out today (30 October 2008) from The NHS Information Centre for health and social care.

The report, Community Care Statistics 2008: Supported Residents (Adults) England, identifies a drop in the number of people paid for partly or entirely by their local authority to live in a residential or nursing home.

However, it shows councils with adult social care responsibilities are supporting more people to live independently in their own home.

The report shows two thirds of councils met a Government target to support 34 per cent of people intensively at home, of those who are either supported at home or in residential care, by March 2008.

In addition, the report highlights the number of residents, broken down by age group, in independent residential homes, independent nursing homes and council-run homes.

The NHS Information Centre's interim director of social care Robert Lake said: "The report charts the growing emphasis local authorities are placing on enabling people to remain living independently within their own home. This is shown by the falling numbers of people they are paying for to live in a residential or nursing home as well as the increase in numbers they are supporting to stay in their own home

"Councils with adult social care responsibilities will find this report a useful means of comparing their approach with comparable authorities across England."

The full report is at: ic.nhs/pubs/carestats08sr

Also published today is Community Care Statistics 2007/08: Grant Funded Services, England and Registered Blind and Partially Sighted People, year ending 31 March 2008.

The NHS Information Centre (The IC) is England's authoritative, independent source of health and social care information. It works with more than 300 health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researcher, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS IC also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.

NHS IC