Elderly people in Scotland looking for care home places and care treatment are receiving a "patchy and inconsistent" service, a watchdog has found. 

Audit Scotland said councils were not offering consistent information to enable it to measure their performance. 

It said more than 1,800 elderly people were waiting for care services despite councils' efforts to improve. 

The number of people aged 65 and over in Scotland is expected to rise by 46% to 1.2 million by 2027. 

The report was carried out for the Accounts Commission and the Auditor General. 

Audit Scotland found that 1,188 people were waiting for a care home place - an average of 37 people per council. 

The report said elderly people were waiting for care home places in every Scottish council area except Midlothian. 

People were waiting for home care services in 18 council areas, Audit Scotland said. 

"Monitoring how long older people wait for services to be provided is patchy and inconsistent," the report said. 

Council problems 
"All councils monitor waiting times for different community care services to some extent, but few monitor these for all services. 

"This information is needed to plan what services are needed where, and to assess whether older people are getting support within a reasonable timescale. 

"The lack of standard data definitions also means it is not possible to make comparisons across councils and use benchmarking to improve services." 

The report, entitled Commissioning Community Care Services for Older People, also said that the Scottish Executive was failing to properly monitor its free personal care policy. 

'Flexible services' 
Under the policy, elderly people can receive £145 a week towards the cost of personal care and another £65 if they live in a care home and require nursing care. 

Researchers also found that a further 636 people were waiting for home care, when it conducted its research on 31 March last year. 

Alastair MacNish, chair of the Accounts Commission, said: "Over the next 20 years there will be a huge increase in the number of older people in Scotland and this will impact on the demand for home care services such as help with washing, dressing and shopping. 

"Many councils are planning well and developing services for older people to cope with future need. 

"However, some aspects of planning, including having good information about older people's needs, are not as developed as they should be in all councils." 

Deputy Auditor General Caroline Gardner said: "National policy encourages councils and their health partners to support older people to live in their own homes where possible and to move towards flexible services tailored to suit individuals." 

Deputy Health Minister Tom McCabe said the executive was holding talks with councils and health board partnerships about difficulties in supplying some data. 
"If problems are identified we will work with partnerships to help them resolve these," he said. 

'Shared goal' 
The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) said the report showed that councils were rising to the challenges of an ageing population. 

Social work spokesman Eric Jackson said: "Basing the care of our elderly and vulnerable in their own communities is a shared goal of both Cosla and the executive. 

"We are making progress but we have much to do if we are to be ready for the increased demand in services we are expecting over the next 10 years. 

"There will need to be some frank talking about what our priorities are and where the money will come from if we are to meet the needs of our citizens."