What specialist facilities are available to provide respite care outwith hospitals for patients with complex care needs in Lothian.

The Executive has provided local authorities with £1.4 billion this year for the provision of community care, building on the record levels we have invested in social care over recent years. Respite is a key service that helps people with support needs and their carers. In recognition of this, over the last three years £22 million has been provided to authorities specifically to increase respite provision. Total provision for services to support carers, including respite, has risen four-fold from £5 million in 1999-2000 to £21 million in 2004-05. Our Partnership Agreement builds on this historically high investment through a commitment to ensure that local authorities in Scotland continue to deliver existing levels of respite each year. Authorities must determine how all of the resources available to them are used, in order to meet local needs and priorities. We will be monitoring the overall increase in respite provision achieved for these additional resources but we do not hold information on specific services provided by individual authorities.
The Executive’s overall aim has been to increase access to respite for users and carers and we will continue to work with key stakeholders to deliver that. An Executive/local authority-led working group is currently looking to improve the data available on respite provision both at a local and national level. To do that we need to create a more standardised definition of respite services for use by local authorities. This is a complex area but one we are working to resolve.