Residential/Nursing Care

JSNA > Ageing Well


Residential care is long-term care provided to adults who stay in a residential setting rather than their own home. These settings are usually referred to as ‘care homes’ where a number of adults live, usually in single rooms, and have access to on-site care services. A home registered simply as a care home will provide personal care only – help with washing, dressing and giving medication.

Some care homes are registered to meet a specific care need, for example dementia or terminal illness. Care homes where nursing is provided are usually called ‘care homes with nursing’. This type of residential setting provides personal care (help with washing, dressing and giving medication), and will also have a qualified nurse on duty twenty-four hours a day to carry out nursing tasks. These homes are for people with physical or mental health issues or people who need regular attention from a nurse.

The documents we publish on this page are either legally required to be made available for inspection, for information and analysis purposes or may have been supplied by the public and so in some cases may not be fully accessible. If, for any reason, you cannot access the documents and need an alternative format, please email ina@durham.gov.uk.

Factsheet: Residential and Nursing Care Factsheet (PDF; 722Kb)

Key messages

  • The average age of people admitted to residential care has increased from 84.93 years in 2007/8 to 86.46 years in 2015/16 and from 83.44 years (2007/8) to 84.34 (2015/16) in nursing care.
  • Durham has a higher rate of older people (741.6 per 100,000 population) admitted to permanent residential / nursing care than the national average (628.2) but lower than nearest neighbour (750.4) and North East averages (843.0).
  • In 2015/16 the average length of stay for an older person in residential care was 549 days and in nursing care 313 days, compared to 637 days (residential) and 324 days (nursing) in 2007/08.
  • The number of people likely to require residential care in 2020 and subsequent years is likely to increase and by 2030 this is expected to increase by 62% from the 2015 figure.

 Links to data