Setting the scene - Adult Social Care in a changing landscape
The demand for Adult Social Care rises every year as people live longer and there are more people living longer with more complex needs.
Budget - Money matters:
The Council is a large organisation spending a net £262.3m on revenue activity during 2023/24.
The gross Adult Social Care spend (minus citizens and other contributions) was £139.8m in 2023/24 compared to 2022/23 spend of £118.8m. The largest element of the increase relates to Spend on People:
- £106.1m spent on people
- £25.2m spent on community, assessment and overheads
- £7.3m internal cost for support services including finance, HR and Legal
- £0.8m spent on transport
- £0.4m spent on other
The ‘Spend on People’ referred to in the chart is £106.1m in 2023/24 This increased from £91.5m in 2022/23. ‘Spend on People’ is money spent directly on the provision of care.
- £38.5m spent on homecare
- £28.4m spent on residential
- £12.7m spent on nursing
- £11.5m spent on Direct Payments
- £7.6m spent on Housing with Care
- £3m spent on day opportunities
- £2.6m spent on supported living
- £1.4m spent on equipment and adaptions
- £0.4m spent on Individual Service Funds
How do we compare?
In recent years we know that Coventry demonstrates comparatively low spending as a local authority per 100,000 population. The Local Government Association publish information about spend later on in the year, but you can view information for 2022/23 online.
Facts and figures
People receiving support
Adult Social Care receive a large volume of requests for support on a day-to-day basis. Our aim is to maximise people’s independence and support people in the least intrusive way.
- 10,773 new requests for support (remains similar last year’s figure of 10,772). 5% of requests resulted in a long-term service (similar as last year’s 5.2%).
- 27% received low level support (increase on last year’s 25%).
- 26% received a short-term service to promote independence (increase on last year’s 25%).
- 4,721 people received long term support during the year out of which 3,650 people received long term support as of 31st March 2024.
- 2,724 people had been in long term support for over 12 months as at 31st March 2024.
- 1,364 people received a planned or unplanned review throughout the year (compared to 1,279 last year).
- 43 people transitioned from Children’s Services to Adult Social Care compared to 29 last year.
Carers receiving an assessment
Adult Social Care have an equal responsibility for anyone providing unpaid care within the city. Anyone providing necessary care to another adult is entitled to a carer’s assessment.
- 1,221 carers had their needs assessed in 2023/24.
- 1,929 carers received support.
How do we compare?
CQC Local Area Analysis data suggests in Coventry, compared to other local authorities that have similar populations, that we think of other solutions first, signposting to universal services and other community support rather than looking at traditional models of support. To explore the Local Area Analysis in more detail you can view the most recent reports from CQC.
In comparison to other Local Authorities Coventry continues to have;
- Low rates of new requests for Adult Social Care, with an average of 30 a day compared to the national average of 36 in 2022/23;
- A lower rate of new requests for Adult Social Care support going straight into an ongoing long term service than comparators;
- A higher proportion of new requests for people aged 65+ going on to receive short term support to maximise independence than comparators;
- Continued lower rate of people receiving long term support per 100,000 population compared with our comparators.
Safeguarding
Protecting adults to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect is a core duty of Adult Social Care. The rising rate of safeguarding concerns reported suggests people know how to report abuse and we are addressing concerns without the need for an enquiry or investigation.
- 6,796 safeguarding concerns received, an 8% increase from previous year (6,278)
- 20% the rate of concerns that led to an enquiry, up from 17% last year
- 77% of enquiries were concluded within 0-3 months
- 1,353 safeguarding enquiries, a 28% increase from the previous year (1,055)
- 1,345 completed safeguarding enquiries were undertaken in the year compared to 985 in the previous year
- 1,018 people (87%) were asked about their outcomes, a decrease from 90% of people asked last year (890)
- 96% of people reported fully achieved/partially achieved outcomes compared to 94% last year
We continue to closely monitor all our activity and use ‘sampling’ audits and develop improvement plans when we need to look into our approaches in more depth.
How do we compare?
Coventry has a higher rate of concerns per 100,00 population in 2023/24 (2457) compared to 2022/23 England (1313) and West Midlands (1474). Coventry has a higher rate of enquiries started in 2023/24 (489) compared to 2022/23 England (387) and significantly higher than West Midlands (229). The high number of concerns started compared to England and West Midlands has meant that Coventry’s conversion rate (20%) is lower than England (29%) but higher than the West Midlands conversion rate (16%). 2023/24 comparator data is due to be published in August 2024 on the NHS website.
Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS)
The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) are part of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The safeguards aim to make sure that people in care homes and hospitals are looked after in a way that does not inappropriately restrict their freedom.
- There has been a 2% (213) decrease in the number of applications - 2,757 in 2022/23, and 2,701 in 2023/24
- 463 (17%) 2023/24 are in due process compared with 458 (17%) 2022/23.
- In 2023/24 there were 2,238 applications completed which is a 3% decrease from 2,299 2022/23
- There was a decrease in applications granted after 6 months of being received from 106 (10%) in 2022/23 87 (9%) in 2023/24
How do we compare?
Comparator information will be published at the end of 2023-2024 however we know last year, we saw a higher proportion of applications compared to other regions that Coventry share similarities with and similarly, we completed a higher proportion of assessments than our comparators. Nationally local authorities completed on average 638 DoLS applications per 100,000 of the population in 2022/2023 and in Coventry this figure was 809 applications per 100,000 in 2023/2024.
Demographics
Coventry the City - Drivers of Demand
Coventry's population is growing, changing and increasingly diverse.
Coventry is home to 345,300 residents (census 2021) second largest Local Authority in the West Midlands. Coventry's population has grown by 8.9% over the last 10 years.
65.5% of people in Coventry identified their ethnic group within the ‘White’ category (compared with 73.8% in 2011).
18.5% identified their ethnic group as ‘Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh’ category (compared with 16.3% in 2011).
The diversity in spoken languages is also increasing.
Deprivation within the City has decreased in more recent years, the % of Coventry neighbourhoods that are amongst the 10% most deprived in England reduced from 18.5% to14.4% (between 2015 and 2019). However, over a quarter (25.6%) of neighbourhoods are amongst the most deprived 20% of areas, a particular focus for the health system for tackling inequalities (the ‘Core20’).
Life expectancy in the city remains lower than the national and regional averages. For females this is 82 years and for males 78 years. There are significant health inequalities across our neighbourhoods.
13% of the population is 65+ projected to increase by 27.7% by the year 2043.
The median age of the population is 35, five years lower than that of the region and England at 40.
2.4% of the population are aged 85 or over.
Our workforce
The people that provide support where required
- 1034 Internal Staff (including housing)
- 81.6% Female staff, and 18.4% Male staff
- Average age of workforce 48 years
- 63% workforce aged over 50
- 65.57% of the workforce is white
- Vacancy rate is 13.15%
- 28.34% of workforce is Minority Ethnic
- Leaver rate is 11.45%, 117 people
- New starter rate is 12.67%, 131 people
- The wider Adult Social Care workforce in Coventry amounts to 9600 jobs which includes staff working in 190 CQC registered establishments.