Elderly Day Care Numbers, Attendance, Processes and Spend

1. How many building based day care centres for older people, aged 65 or over, are there currently in your council?

Devon County Council (DCC) operates three in-house building based day care centres for older people.

2. How many building based day care centres for older people, aged 65 or over, have been closed in the past five years?

Sixteen in-house building based day care centres for older people that DCC operated have been closed in the past five years. DCC now commissions day care services and stimulates the voluntary sector. e.g. there are now more than 60 memory cafes in Devon.

3. How many older people, aged 65 or over, are currently in your council area?

The Office for National Statistics mid-year estimate figure for 2018, which is the latest figure for Devon, is 200,300.

4. How many older people, aged 65 or over, are currently in your council area that are eligible for the council to pay towards the cost of their care (estimate is absolutely fine)?

DCC is not in a position to evaluate how many people are eligible for support across Devon and can therefore only quantify those who have been assessed for support and found to be eligible.  When looking at all forms of care services offered, DCC currently provides support services to 5,972 people aged 65 and over.

5. How many older people, aged 65 or over, are receiving funding from the council for day care services?

As at 30 June 2019, DCC provided Day Care services to 236 people aged 65 and over.  Others arrange their own day care through direct payments.

6. How many older people, aged 65 or over, attended day care centres for older people in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 in your Council?

DCC authorised support for people aged 65 or over to attend Day Care Centres in these financial years as follows:-

DCC is not in a position to establish whether attendance actually occurred and exactly how many as this would involve manually examining the notes contained within each Agreement.  On the basis of an estimated 5 minutes per client, for 2016/17 alone, this would take in excess of 89 hours.  We are, therefore, unable to provide exact figures under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – ‘Cost of Compliance’.

7. What was the total number of day care visits made by all older people, aged 65 or over, to day care centres in your Council in 2016, 2017 and 2018?

In responding to this question, we have used the maximum number of Day Care Centre Visits authorised each week (or part of) for each person in the period in question, based on the information entered on to the system:

DCC is not in a position to establish whether attendance actually occurred and exactly how many as this would involve manually examining the notes contained within each Agreement.  On the basis of an estimated 5 minutes per client, for 2016/17 alone, this would take in excess of 89 hours.  We are, therefore, unable to provide exact figures under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – ‘Cost of Compliance’.

8. What was the total expenditure on day care for older people, aged 65 or over, in your council in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018?

9. How much funding did day care centres, for older people aged 65 or over, receive in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018?

We have interpreted ‘funding’ as the value of the budget set.