A Study of a Total Social Services Care Population and its Inter-Agency Shared Care Populations

There are very few large population studies and little information about the characteristics of social services populations and the inter-agency populations that social services departments share with other agencies. This study fills this gap. It examines a total social services adult care population, excluding residential care homes (N = 19,461) in the context of its general co-terminous health authority population (N = 646,239). Approximately two-thirds (61 per cent) of the social services population were women, compared to the health authority population of 51 per cent. Sixty-two per cent were over sixty-five years compared to 23 per cent of the health authority. Age groupings and gendered patterns of service use are then identified for different care groups. The study then examines care populations shared between social services and other agencies, identifying the amount of shared care and the characteristics of specific shared care subgroups. Forty-two per cent of the social services population were shared with the community health trust and 19 per cent with the mental health trust. The proportion of the social services population in contact with Criminal Justice and accident and emergency was nearly twice that in the overall health authority population. The limitations of these data are examined and the potential of this method to inform inter-agency planning and shared care is discussed.