Adult Social Care Survey 2025

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.

The council’s performance improved in the following areas:

• overall satisfaction of people who use services with their care and support increased from 64% in 2024 to 66% in 2025 and is slightly higher than the England average (65.1%)
• the proportion of people who use services who have control over their daily life increased slightly, from 79.6% in 2024 to 80.2% in 2025. This is higher than the regional average (78.6%) and national average (77.3%)

The council’s performance declined in the following areas:

• the social care-related quality of life score decreased slightly, from 19.3 in 2024 to 19.1 in 2025
• the proportion of people who use services who feel safe decreased from 70.9% in 2024 to 70.4% in 2025. The score is similar to the regional average (70.7%) and national average (70.1%)
• the proportion of people who use services who find it easy to find information and advice about support decreased from 65.7% in 2024 to 62.8% in 2025. This is below the regional average (66.4%) and national average (67.9%)
• the proportion of people who reported they had as much social contact as they would like decreased from 49.9% in 2024 to 43.5% in 2025. This is lower than the national average (45.4%), but similar to the regional average (43.0%)

The survey contains eight questions which provide a picture of the respondent’s overall health and factors which may impact that.

Compared to 2024, responses were more positive in three areas:

• how often do you feel lonely, where 37.1% never or hardly ever felt lonely. This was higher than 2024 (34.8%) and higher than England overall (36.5%)
• general health, where 45.9% of respondents felt their health was good or very good. This was higher than in 2024 (42.5%) and higher than England overall (42.0%)
• anxiety or depression, where 51.9% stated that they were not anxious or depressed. This was higher than 2024 (50.7%) and higher than England overall (49.2%)

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

• keeping clean and presentable, where 53.9% of respondents felt clean and able to present themselves in the way that they like. This was lower than 2024 (57.6%) and lower than England overall (55.8%)
• food and drink, where 60.1% stated they get all the food and drink they like when they want. This was marginally lower than 2024 (60.5%) and lower than England overall (62.6%)
• a clean and comfortable home, where 62.7% responded that their home was as clean and comfortable as they want. This was lower than 2024 (64.0%) and lower than England overall (65.2%)
• pain or discomfort, where 38.6% stated that they felt no pain or discomfort. This was lower than 2024 (40.7%) but higher than in England overall (37.1%)
• in respect of being able to get out and about, 28.2% stated they were able to get to all the places in the local area that they wanted. This was lower than 2024 (30.6%) and lower than England overall (29.7%)

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 five out of nine areas compared to 2024:

• getting around indoors (excepting steps) by yourself where 51.5% answered positively. This was higher than 2024 (51.2%) but slightly lower than England overall (52.0%)
• usually managing to feed yourself, where 80.0% answered positively. This was higher than 2024 (77.4%) and higher than England overall (76.1%)
• dealing with finances and paperwork (for example paying bills, writing letters) by yourself, where 19.7% answered positively. This was higher than 2024 (17.0%) but slightly lower than England overall (20.1%)
• managing to get dressed or undressed by yourself, where 41.1% answered positively. This was higher than 2024 (39.2%) but lower than England overall (42.3%)
• managing to use the toilet by yourself, where 58.8% answered positively. This was higher than 2024 (58.1%) and higher than England overall (58.4%)

Performance worsened in the following areas relating to respondents’ level and type of care needs:

• managing to get in and out of bed (or chair) by yourself, where 52.7% answered positively. This was lower than 2024 (53.6%) and lower than England overall (55.2%)
• managing to wash all over by yourself, using either a bath or shower, where 28.8% answered positively. This was lower than 2024 (31.6%) and lower than England overall (31.9%)
• managing to wash your face and hands by yourself, where 68.6% answered positively. This was lower than 2024 (71.6%) and the same as England overall
• how well your home is designed to meet your needs, where 86.6% answered positively. This was lower than 2024 (87.7%) but higher than England overall (84.6%)

The survey asked a range of questions about what social care services supported respondents with.

Compared to 2024, the percentage of respondents reporting that social services provided support (where a need was present) increased in three of the six areas:

• support with the way you spend your time, where 71.8% of respondents said that services supported them with this. This was higher than 2024 (67.6%) and higher than England overall (66.4%)
• help with social contact, where 67.9% of respondents said that services helped them with this. This was higher than 2024 (64.8%) and higher than England overall (67.7%)
• help keeping your home clean and comfortable, where 72.5% of respondents said that services helped them with this. This was higher than 2024 (71.4%) but lower than England overall (74.1%)

There were three areas where a smaller percentage reported receiving support from services (where a need was present) compared to 2024:

• support to have a better quality of life, where 88.5% of respondents said services supported them with this. This was lower than 2024 (90.6%) and lower than England overall (91.1%)
• keeping clean and presentable in appearance, where 87.5% of respondents said that services helped them with this. This was lower than 2024 (91.1%) and lower than England overall (88.3%)
• help getting food and drink, where 81.2% of respondents said that services helped them with this. This was lower than 2024 (82.5%) and lower than England overall (81.7%)

There are a range of questions in the survey which explore the respondents’ quality of life and experience of care and support services.

Compared to 2024, the reported experience of respondents improved in the following four areas:

• how the way I am helped and treated makes me feel about myself, where 64.7% stated it made them feel better about themselves. This was higher than 2024 (62.5%) and higher than England overall (62.7%)
• how much control you have over your life, where 80.2% felt they had adequate control, or as much control as they wanted. This was higher than 2024 (79.6%) and higher than England overall (77.3%)
• thinking about the good and bad things that make up your quality of life, how would you describe your quality of life, where 65.8% responded that it was either good, very good or could not be better. This was higher than 2024 (63.2%) and higher than England overall (62.1%)
• overall, how satisfied are you with the care and support services you receive, where 66.0% were very or extremely satisfied. This was higher than 2024 (64.0%) and higher than England overall (65.1%)

The reported experience worsened in the following seven areas:

• do care and support services help you have control over your daily life, where 86.7% said “yes” out of those who answered either “yes” or “no”. This was lower than in 2024 (87.4%) and lower than England overall (88.5%)
• in the past year have you found it easy or difficult to find information and advice about support, services or benefits, where 62.8% had found it fairly or very easy to find, excluding respondents who never tried to find information or advice. This was lower than in 2024 (65.7%) and lower than England overall (67.9%)
• how much contact you have had with people you like, where 43.5% had as much social contact as they liked with the people they liked. This was lower than in 2024 (49.9%) and lower than England overall 45.4%
• how you spend your time, where 70.6% stated that they were at least able to do enough of things they valued and enjoyed with their time. This was lower than 2024 (74.8%) but higher than England overall (68.8%)
• feeling safe, where 70.4% of respondents stated that they felt as safe as they wanted. This was lower than 2024 (70.9%) but higher than England overall (70.1%)
• choice over care and support, where 68.7% said they had enough choice, excluding respondents who said they did not want or need choice. This was lower than 2024 (69.7%) and lower than England overall (70.6%)
• 85.4% said that having care and support made them feel better about themselves or did not negatively affect how they felt about themselves. This was lower than 2024 (87.7%) and lower than England overall (88.4%)

In comparison to England overall, Cambridgeshire respondents were more positive on six of the 11 indicators relating to overall experience and outcomes.

Alongside the national questions Cambridgeshire included four local questions. Two questions were asked related to the topic of safety, one question asked whether people felt that care workers supported them in a way which respected their background, cultural life and religious beliefs, and one question asked people’s preferred method of contacting the council. As these are local questions, there is no benchmarking available with England overall.

Safety

Just over half of respondents were not worried about their safety. Of those who did have concerns, a significant proportion were worried about accidents, either at home (27.8%) or away from home (16.6%).

Over three quarters of respondents said they would talk to family if they felt unsafe or were worried about something that had happened to them. A significant proportion said they would speak to care workers. However, a minority of respondents said they did not know who they would talk to or would not talk to anyone.

Contacting the council

56% of respondents did not directly contact the council themselves but relied on someone else to communicate on their behalf. Notably, digital forms of contact (online forms/chats, texts and e-mails) were the least selected options.

Respect for background, cultural life and religious beliefs

93.1% of respondents to the standard questionnaire said that care workers usually or always respected their background, cultural life and religious beliefs. The proportion who felt their beliefs were always respected rose from 64.9% in 2024 to 68.9% in 2025.

Respondents to the Easy Read questionnaire answered more positively than last year about care workers’ respect for their background and cultural life. However, this cohort felt more negatively about care workers’ respect for their religious beliefs.