The trends for councils to focus domiciliary care on fewer, needier people and outsource provision to the independent sector have continued, figures from the Information Centre for health and social care out today show.
The number of hours provided overall rose by 5% from 2005-6 while the number of households receiving care fell by 2%, to just over 345,000.
The average number of weekly contact hours rose from 10.1 to 10.8 from 2005-6, with the 2006 figure representing a doubling of the 1997 figure of 5.4, showing how far services have been focused on people with more acute needs.
Independent sector providers accounted for 75% of provision up from 73% in 2005 and 42% in 1997.
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