Consultation on National Social Care User Experience Surveys
Introduction
The world of state funded social care provision is changing and the way
in which the NHS Information Centre (NHS IC) runs its national social
care user experience surveys needs to change too to match this
transition.
Previously people were assessed by their local authority as to whether they
were eligible for a state funded service and those who were, received the
relevant service commissioned by the LA. Now however, there is a move
towards service users who are eligible for a service receiving a pot of money,
known as a personal budget, which they then use to purchase their own
services. Some may choose to still purchase LA services, others may choose
to purchase an equivalent service from the independent sector, others may
choose to employ their own carer or purchase their own piece of equipment
from a preferred provider, while others may choose to spend the money on a
more innovative service which they feel will benefit them. This is known as
self-directed support.
At the same time that services are transforming, there is increasing need to
account for the results achieved by social care – the ‘outcomes’ for the
service users. These results will be broader than the experience of individual
services, and require a different approach to surveys to elicit the information.
However, in responding to this consultation, please note that the Government
has not yet confirmed its intentions with regard to the future performance
arrangements for Local Government (including the role of surveys and related
national indicators). This consultation should not be taken to pre-empt such
decisions or suggest the continuation of a national accountability framework.
New Survey
As a result of the moves above, the current programme of social care user
experience surveys is far less relevant now than it was in the past (see annex
A for a list of previous surveys). There is now more emphasis on whether the
services chosen by the user enable them to achieve their desired outcomes
and therefore detailed questions about aspects of the service, (e.g. whether
the carer arrives on time or whether the user was shown how to use their
equipment etc.), need to be replaced by questions which look at impact of
services on a person’s life such as whether they have adequate food and
drink, whether their home is neat and tidy, whether they feel safe, whether
they have sufficient control over their life, etc.
Two workshops in Leeds and London and an online questionnaire for those
who could not attend invited key stakeholders including Department for Health
(DH), Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Local Authorities (LAs) to
comment on this proposal1. The focus of the workshops was around the
format of the new survey although there were no concerns raised about this
transition. If you contributed to these workshops or the online questionnaire
then there is no need to resubmit the views you gave there via this
consultation but please feel free to raise any additional points.
The new survey will be introduced for 2010-11 and is likely to be called the
“Adult Social Care Survey (title to be confirmed)”. This survey will cover all
users of state funded social care, regardless of the service they are receiving
(although additional data collected from council records will enable further
analysis by services received). For the first time, it will include service users
in residential care in a national survey, and a version of the questionnaire has
also been developed for those with learning difficulties to encourage them to
respond. The new survey has just been through a successful pilot stage2 and
a copy of the questionnaire which was piloted is shown in annex B. Subject to
formal approval from the Strategic Improving Information Programme board
which has the remit to approve social care collections, it is intended for
fieldwork for the full survey to take place in February 2011.
Question 1: Do you have any concerns over discontinuing information
from the old service specific surveys? If so please specify
which loss of information causes you concern.
In future years, there may be an opportunity to add modules of questions to
the survey which are service specific and therefore replicate some of the old
surveys. For example, some of the questions which were previously on the
older person’s home care survey could be added. Any such modules would
be subject to funding being available but we would welcome your views on
what topics (if any) you would like to see included as potential modules for the
future.
Question 2: What additional modules would you like to see included in
the future national survey?
Publication Plans
The current intention is for the survey fieldwork to be conducted in February of
each year with the data being provided to the NHS IC from councils in late
May. Data will be made available to CQC and LAs for management
information purposes only for the inspection process under pre-release
access rules in mid June and end July. The data provided in mid June will be
1
A report on each of the workshops and a copy of responses to the online questionnaire can
be seen at:
http://www.ic.nhs.uk/webfiles/Services/Social%20care/Putting%20People%20First%20User%
20Experience%20Survey/Summary%20of%20responsesv3.pdf
2 A report on the pilot survey can be seen in paper 2 of the July meeting of the Social
Services User Survey Group at: http://www.ic.nhs.uk/services/social-care/review-approvaland-development/ssusg. More details about the methodology for the pilot can be found at:
http://www.ic.nhs.uk/services/social-care/social-care-collections/user-surveys/user-surveyguidance-2010-11.
as supplied by councils and will not have undergone any additional validation
other than that built into the data collection tools. The data made available at
end July will be a validated dataset. Data provided to CQC will be limited to
that needed for the inspection process.
Some very limited information will become publicly available in August for
those questions which form indicators with a full provisional dataset being
available by end September. There will not be an accompanying detailed
written report at this stage but a few key facts will be drawn out and published
on our website. The data will also be made available via the National Adult
Social Care Intelligence Service (NASCIS)3 for users to carry out their own
analysis via an online analytical processing tool.
A full final set of data along with a written report will then be published in
December. This final report will contain univariate analyses of each of the
questions as well as looking at some of the quality of life and satisfaction
questions by demographics and services received. There will also be an
analysis of the questions which are used to form National Indicators and this
final dataset will also be made available via NASCIS.
The timings for each of the releases is set out in annex C.
Question 3: Is the proposed publication timetable suitable for your
needs?
Question 4: What analyses would you like to see in each of the public
releases of provisional data in September and final data in
December?
Next steps
Comments, opinions, and suggestions gathered from this consultation
exercise will help shape the content of the new survey and subsequent report.
How to respond
It is open to anyone – whether as an individual or representing an
organisation – to respond to this consultation document. The closing date for
the consultation is 12 November 2010. You are asked to complete your
response by returning any comments or suggestions you may have to the
NHS Information Centre.
Please send your response by clicking on this link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/social_care_survey
3
More information on NASCIS can be found at http://www.ic.nhs.uk/services/social-care/thenational-adult-social-care-intelligence-service-nascis
Please ensure that you include your contact details on any documents you
contribute to ensure we can contact you to inform you of the outcome of the
review.
A summary of the responses received will be made available on our website
www.ic.nhs.uk/
If you have a query regarding completing your response, or you require a
copy of this consultation paper in any other format, e.g. Braille, Large Font, or
Audio, please contact the NHS IC on: 0845 300 6016 (9am to 5pm, Monday
to Friday) or enquiries@ic.nhs.uk
Publication of the consultation outcome
The findings from the consultation exercise will be published on the NHS
Information Centre website at: www.ic.nhs.uk towards the end of 2010.
Responses: Confidentiality and disclaimer
The information you send us may be passed to colleagues within the NHS
Information Centre, Skills for Care, other government departments or related
agencies. Even where confidentiality is requested, if a request for disclosure
of the consultation response is made in accordance with the freedom of
information legislation, and the response is not covered by one of the
exemptions in the legislation, the NHS Information Centre may have to
disclose the response, in whole or in part.
NHS Information Centre for health and social care
August 2010