The document analyzes data on health and social care use at the end of life in England. It finds that over half of people use social care services in their final year. Social care use increases with age and is higher in more deprived areas and among those with chronic conditions. Though social care use rises only modestly in the final year compared to hospital use, higher social care is linked to lower hospital costs. The study aims to better understand end of life care usage across health and social services.

1. © Nuffield Trust
Health and social care at the end of life
Theo Georghiou, Senior Research Analyst, Nuffield Trust
October 2012
In partnership with

2. © Nuffield Trust
The study: care at the end of life
• National strategy in England aims to provide people with
high-quality services driven by own preferences
• Improving coordination of care across all sectors is
important
• Hampered by lack of information about how people
currently use different care services
• Data linkage techniques have been developed to look at
individuals’ use of social care and health care services
• Study aimed to answer some basic questions about use
of local authority-funded social care near the end of life

3. © Nuffield Trust
The data

4. © Nuffield Trust
Final year of life: How many people use a social care
service?

5. © Nuffield Trust
Final year of life: How many people use a social care
service, by age group?

6. © Nuffield Trust
Final year: How does social care use change?

7. © Nuffield Trust
Final year: How does social care use change?

8. © Nuffield Trust
Final year social care use: variation by deprivation

9. © Nuffield Trust
Final year social care use: Variation by diagnostic history

10. © Nuffield Trust
Final year costs: How does social care use compare to
hospital use?

11. © Nuffield Trust
Final year costs by age

12. © Nuffield Trust
Final year hospital costs by social care use

13. © Nuffield Trust
Concluding observations
• Local authority-funded social care plays a large role in the
care of those near the end of life
• There appears to be a large amount of variation in social
care use
• Social care use appears to increase only modestly during
the final year, when compared to hospital use
• Higher use of social care services is associated with lower
use of hospital care

14. © Nuffield Trust
www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk
Sign-up for our newsletter
www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/newsletter
Follow us on Twitter
http://twitter.com/NuffieldTrust
© Nuffield Trust