Adult Social Care Survey 2024

Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF)

The Adult Social Care Survey provides data for some of the national indicators within the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF). These are national performance indicators for Adult Social Care. Indicator 4B ‘The proportion of people who use services who say that those services have made them feel safe and secure’ was discontinued from 2023-24.

Performance in 2023-24 improved compared to 2022-23 in five out of six areas. In three of these areas, Cambridgeshire also performed well relative to the Eastern region, peer neighbours, and England overall:

• Social care-related quality of life improved from 18.9 to 19.3 out of 24, which meant the council ranked 44th of 151 councils. A low rank is good.
• The proportion of people who use services who have control over their daily life was 79.6%, placing the council 45th of 151 councils.
• The proportion of people who use services who reported having as much social contact as they would like was 49.6%, ranking 23rd of 151 councils.
• The overall satisfaction of people who use services with their care and support improved, with 64.0% of people answering positively compared to 60.2 % in 2022-23. However, the council scored slightly lower than England overall.
• The proportion of people who use services who feel safe increased to 70.9% from 69.2% in 2022-23. This was slightly lower than the England average of 71.1%.

The council performed less well in the following area:

• The proportion of people who use services who find it easy to access information about support decreased to 65.7% from 68.7% in 2022-23. The council scored lower in this area than regional and peer neighbours, ranking 108^th out of 151 councils in England.

The survey contains eight questions which provide a picture of the respondent’s overall health and factors which may impact that. Responses to these questions were more positive than 2023 in five areas:

• Keeping clean and presentable, where 57.6% of respondents felt clean and able to present themselves in the way that they like. This was higher than 2023 (53.8%) and higher than England overall (56.8%).
• Food and drink, where 60.5% stated that they get all the food and drink they like when they want. This was higher than 2023 (58.4%) but lower than England overall (63.4%).
• Pain or discomfort, where 40.7% stated that they felt no pain or discomfort. This was higher than 2023 (38.9%) and higher than in England overall (37.0%).
• Anxiety or depression, where 50.7% stated that they were not anxious or depressed. This was higher than 2023 (49.6%) and higher than in England overall (49.3%).
• In respect of being able to get out and about, 30.6% stated they were able to get to all the places in the local area that they wanted. This was higher than 2023 (27.9%) and higher than England overall (29.6%).

The responses around health and health related factors worsened in the following three areas:

• General health, where 42.5% of respondents felt their health was good or very good. This was lower than in 2023 (45.3%) but slightly better than England overall (42.2%).
• A clean and comfortable home, where 64.0% responded that their home was as clean and comfortable as they want. This was slightly lower than 2023 (64.5%) and lower than England overall (65.2%).
• How often do you feel lonely, where 34.8% never or hardly ever felt lonely. This was lower than 2023 (36.8%) and lower than England overall (36.6%).

For the questions relating to health, Cambridgeshire respondents answered more positively than England overall in five out of eight of the questions.

The survey asks several questions around the respondent’s support needs and what they could do for themselves. Respondents’ ability to do things for themselves improved in nine out of ten areas compared to 2023:

• Getting around indoors (excepting steps) by yourself where 51.2% answered positively. This was higher than 2023 (50.3%) but slightly lower than England overall (52.2%).
• Managing to get in and out of bed (or chair) by yourself, where 53.6% answered positively. This was slightly higher than 2023 (52.5%) but lower than England overall (55.2%).
• Managing to wash your face and hands by yourself, where 71.6% answered positively. This was higher than 2023 (66.2%) and higher than England overall (69.3%).
• Managing to get dressed or undressed by yourself, where 39.2% answered positively. This was higher than 2023 (37.9%) but lower than England overall (42.4%).
• Managing to use the toilet by yourself, where 58.1% answered positively. This was higher than in 2023 (56.2%) but lower than England overall (58.9%).
• Managing to wash all over by yourself, using either a bath or shower, where 31.6% answered positively. This was higher than 2023 (29.5%) but lower than England overall (32.1%).
• Dealing with finances and paperwork (for example paying bills, writing letters) by yourself, where 17.0% answered positively. This was higher than 2023 (15.0%) but lower than England overall (19.5%).
• Usually managing to feed yourself, where 77.4% answered positively. This was higher than 2023 (74.1%) and higher than England overall (76.8%).
• Getting around outside of the house, where 30.6% answered positively. This was higher than 2023 (27.9%) and higher than England overall (29.6%).

Performance worsened in one area relating to respondents’ level and type of care needs compared to 2023:

• How well your home is designed to meet your needs, where 87.7% answered positively. This was slightly lower than 2023 (88.2%) but higher than England overall (85.0%).

Survey respondents in Cambridgeshire were more able to do tasks for themselves in nine of the ten areas when compared with last year’s survey results. However, in four of the ten areas, responses were less positive compared to England overall.

The survey asked a range of questions about what social care services supported respondents with. The percentage of respondents reporting that social services provided support (where a need was present) increased in five of the seven areas:

• Support with the way you spend your time, where 67.6% of respondents who felt they needed support with this said that services supported them with this. This was higher than 2023 (60.4%) but lower than England overall (69.4%).
• Help with social contact, where 64.8% of respondents who felt that they needed support with this said that services helped them with this. This was higher than 2023 (62.5%) but lower than England overall (67.1%).
• Help keeping your home clean and comfortable, where 71.4% of respondents who felt they needed support with this said that services helped them with this. This was higher than 2023 (65.9%) but lower than England overall (74.7%).
• Help getting food and drink, where 82.5% of respondents who felt they needed help with this said that services did help them with this. This was higher than 2023 (80.6%) but lower than England overall (83.3%).
• Help feeling safe, where 86.3% felt support services helped them to feel safe. This was higher than 2023 (85.8%) but lower than England overall (87.8%).

There were two areas in which a smaller percentage reported receiving support from services (where a need was present), they were:

• Support to have a better quality of life, where 90.6% of respondents said services supported them with this. This was lower than 2023 (92.6%) and lower than England overall (91.3%).
• Keeping clean and presentable in appearance, where 91.1% of respondents who felt they needed help said that services did help them with this. This was lower than 2023 (93.6%) but higher than England overall (88.2%).

There are a range of questions in the survey which explore the respondents’ quality of life and experience of care and support services. The reported experience of respondents improved when compared to the 2023 survey in the following six areas:

• How much contact you have had with people you like, where 81.5% had adequate social contact or as much social contact as they liked with the people they liked. This was higher than in 2023 (78.1%) in 2023 and higher than England overall 76.9%.
• How the way I am helped and treated makes me feel about myself, where 90.3% stated it made them feel better (62.6%) or did not affect the way they felt (27.7%). This was better than 2023 (88.9%) and marginally better than England overall (90.2%).
• How you spend your time, where 74.7% stated that they were at least able to do enough of things they valued and enjoyed with their time. This was higher than 2023 (69.5%) and higher than England overall (69.1%).
• How much control you have over your life, where 79.6% felt they had adequate control, or as much control as they wanted. This was higher than 2023 (76.4%) and higher than England overall (77.6%).
• Thinking about the good and bad things that make up your quality of life, how would you describe your quality of life, where 63.0% responded that it was either good, very good or could not be better. This was higher than 2023 (58.0%) and higher than England overall (62.4%).
• Feeling safe, where 70.9% of respondents stated that they felt as safe as they wanted. This was higher than 2023 (69.2%) but lower than England overall (71.1%).

The reported experience had worsened in the following five areas:

• In the past year have you found it easy or difficult to find information and advice about support, services or benefits, where 65.9% had found it fairly or very easy to find, excluding respondents who never tried to find information or advice. This was higher than 67.1% in 2023 but lower than England overall (67.9%).
• Do care and support services help you have control over your daily life, where 87.4% said “yes” out of those who answered either “yes” or “no”. This was lower than in 2023 (91.3%) and lower than England overall (88.7%).
• Choice over care and support, where 69.7% said they had enough choice, excluding respondents who said they did not want or need choice. This was lower than 2023 (73.5%) and lower than England overall (70.3%).
• Overall, how satisfied are you with the care and support services you receive, where 87.3% were either quite satisfied (23.3%), very or extremely satisfied (64.0%). This was lower than 2023 (89.4%) and lower than England overall (88.7%).
• 87.7% said that having care and support made them feel better about themselves or did not negatively affect how they felt about themselves. This was slightly lower than 2023 (88.0%) and lower than England overall (88.9%).

When comparing to England overall, Cambridgeshire respondents were more positive on five of the 11 indicators relating to overall experience and outcomes.

Alongside the national questions Cambridgeshire asked two local questions. The first question asked people’s preferred method of contacting the council. The second question asked whether people felt that care workers supported them in a way which respected their background, cultural life and religious beliefs. As these are local questions, there is no benchmarking available with England overall.

How do you prefer to contact the council or other services?

* People were able to choose multiple options when answering this question.

57.6% of respondents did not directly contact the council themselves but relied on someone else communicate on their behalf. Notably, digital forms of contact (online forms/chats, texts and emails) were the least selected options.

Do your care workers support you in a way that respects your background, cultural life and religious beliefs? (standard survey version)

Of those people who answered the question, 92.4% responded that care workers usually or always respected their background, cultural life and religious beliefs, improving from 89.6% in 2022-23.

Do your care workers support you in a way that respects your background, cultural life and religious beliefs? (Easy Read survey version)

a. Do your care workers support you in a way that respects how you grew up?

b. Do your care workers support the way you choose to live your life?

c. Do your care workers support your religious beliefs?

Of those people who answered these questions on the Easy Read version of the survey:

• 94.0% felt care workers always or most of the time supported them in a way which respected how they grew up
• 93.3% felt that care workers always or most of the time supported the way they chose to live their life
• 88.2% felt that care workers always or most of the time supported their religious beliefs

Overall, performance was slightly lower than in 2022-23.