What responsibilities do councils have?

Councils are responsible for the social care needs of older people, people with disabilities and vulnerable adults and children in their area.

They have a legal responsibility to find out what sort of social care their local residents need, and to provide or commission that care.

Councils care for:

• more than 360,000 adults in their own homes
• around 270,000 adults in nursing and residential care.

Children services inspected by Ofsted

From April 2007, all children services are now inspected by Ofsted.

• For more information go the Ofsted website

Caring for children

It is not just adults that receive social care through councils. Each year, local authorities care for around 60,000 children.

Depending on the needs of the child, this care can be delivered by:

• residential homes or schools
• foster carers
• temporary placements with their parents.

Around 3,800 children a year are adopted from being in local authority care.

Councils also have a duty to support young people coming out of care at the age of 16 or over.

Are all social services provided by the council?

In the past, the majority of social care was provided directly by council run services.

While there are still services run by councils, over recent years there has been more use of the private and charitable sectors.

This is especially true for residential care, where over 90% of care homes are operated by private or charitable organizations.