Peterborough Survey of Adult Social Care Service Users 2022

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Older lady with worker filling in a questionnaire

Every year the government asks councils to carry out a national survey of people receiving long term adult social care that is funded by the council.

The survey due in 2021 was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so the survey in 2022 was the first since 2020. It took place between January and March 2022. 

On this webpage you can find the results for Peterborough City Council.

The results were published nationally by NHS Digital in Autumn 2022.  You can view them here.

Background

The questionnaire template has set questions and response options which the council cannot change.

However local questions can be added.  In 2022 we added one question as part of our work with the Adult Social Care Partnership Boards.  This was around access to information and advice and digital inclusion.  It asked how people usually found out about support services or welfare benefits.  We also included free text boxes for people to tell us what we do well and what we could do better.

The council sent out 938 Surveys and received back 283 responses.  This is a response rate of 30.2%.  In 2020 the response rate was 37.6%. 

Who was surveyed?

The government tells us who to survey.  This is so that it is representative of people receiving council funded care and support.  

In 2022 we surveyed:

  • 43 people receiving nursing care
  • 65 people receiving residential care
  • 830 people receiving care in their own home or community
  • 213 people had learning disability as their primary reason for needing support
  • 90 people had mental health as their primary reason for needing support
  • 281 people needed personal care support
  • 272 people needed access or mobility support

39% were male and 61% were female. 56% were aged 65 or over and 44% were aged 18-64. 83.5% were white, with the next largest group being Asian/Asian British (11.9%).

Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF)

The Adult Social Care Survey feeds a number of national indicators within the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF).  These are national performance indicators for Adult Social Care.

The results show that most of the ASCOF indicators have worsened since the last survey.  There were two exceptions:

  • overall satisfaction increased from 62.5% to 66.8%
  • the proportion of people who said that services made them feel safe increased from 80.7% to 82.3%
Indicators about health of the respondents

The survey contains eight questions which provide a picture of the respondent’s overall health.   Responses to these questions were more positive than 2020 in the seven areas below: 

  • How is your health in general where 46.3% of respondents felt their health was good or very good.  This was better than 42.2% in 2020 and better than England overall (43.5%).  

  • Anxiety or depression, where 50.8% stated that they were not anxious or depressed which is better than 47.4% in 2020 and 48.4% in England overall. 

  • In respect of being able to get out and about, 40.8% stated they were able to get to all the places in the local area that they wanted.  This was better than 32% in 2020 and better than the 29.6% in England overall. 

  • A clean and comfortable home, where 71.7% responded that their home was as clean and comfortable as they want.  This was better than 66.6% in 2020 and better than England overall (65.5%). 

  • Keeping clean and presentable, where 63.1% of respondents felt clean and able to present themselves in the way that they like.  This was better than 60.6% in 2020 and better than England overall (56.6%) 

  • Food and drink, where 68.7% stated that they get all the food and drink they like when they want, compared to 65.3% in 2020.  This was better than the 63.5% responding this way in England overall. 

  • Pain or discomfort, where 38.1% stated that they felt no pain or discomfort compared to 37.4% in 2020.  This is better than the 37% responding this way in England overall. 

The responses around health and health related factors worsened in one area: 

  • Having social contact, where 41.7% said they had as much social contact as they wanted with people they like, compared to 49.6% in 2020.  However, this was better than the 40.6% in England overall. 

Overall, for the questions relating to health Peterborough respondents answered more positively than the national picture in seven of the eight questions. 

Areas that have improved since the last survey in 2020

The results in these areas were better than in 2020:

  • Getting around indoors (excepting steps) by yourself where 53.7% answered positively. This was higher than 2020 (50.4%).

  • Managing to get in and out of bed (or chair) by yourself, where 54.2% answered positively. This was higher than 2020 (51.9%). 

  • Managing to wash all over by yourself, using either a bath or shower, where 32.0% answered positively.  This was higher than 2020 (27.5%). 

  • Managing to get dressed or undressed by yourself, where 39.9% answered positively. This was higher than 2020 (36.4%).

  • Managing to use the toilet by yourself, where 57.5% answered positively. This was higher than in 2020 (54.5%).  

  • Support to have a better quality of life. 93.7% of respondents said services supported them with this.  This was higher than 2020 (92.2%).

  • Support with the way you spend your time. 69.8% of respondents who felt they needed support with this said that services supported them with this.  This was higher than 2020 (63.5%).

  • Help with social contact.  67.2% of respondents who felt that they needed support with this said that services helped them with this.  This was higher than 2020 (61.7%).

  • Help keeping your home clean and comfortable. 74.1% of respondents who felt they needed support with this said that services helped them with this.  This was higher than 2020 (65.1%). 

  • Help getting food and drink. 86.0% of respondents who felt they needed help with this said that services did help them with this.  This was higher than 2020 (72.0%). 

  • Keeping clean and presentable in appearance. 90.2% of respondents who felt they needed help said that services did help them with this.  This was higher than 2020 (83.7%).

  • Help feeling safe.  84.7% felt support services helped them to feel safe.  This was higher than 2020 (82.5%).

  • Thinking about the good and bad things that make up your quality of life, how would you describe your quality of life? 67.6% responded that it was either good or better.  This was better than 2020 (65.1%). 

  • Overall, how satisfied are you with the care and support services you receive? 91.7% were either quite (22.8%), very or extremely satisfied (68.8%).  This was higher than 2020 (89.7%). 

  • How you spend your time. 73.7% stated that they were at least able to do enough of things they valued and enjoyed with their time.  This was higher than 2020 (71.1%).

  • 91.6% said that either having care and support made them feel better about themselves or did not negatively affect how they felt about themselves.  This was better than the 88.6% in 2020.

Areas that have worsened since the last survey in 2020

Results in these areas were worse than in 2020:: 

  • Usually managing to feed yourself, where 72.6% answered positively. This was lower than 2020 (73.9%).

  • Dealing with finances and paperwork (for example paying bills, writing letters) by yourself, where 14.2% answered positively. This was lower than 2020 (16.1%).

  • Managing to wash your face and hands by yourself, where 65.3% answered positively.  This was lower than 2020 (65.7%).

  • How well your house is designed to meet your needs, where 85.3% answered positively, lower than 2020 (87.7%). 

  • 89.4% said that care and support services helped them to have control over their daily life or that they did not need help with this.  This was less than the 90.7% in 2020.

  • Choice over care and support. 76.5% either said they had enough choice. This was lower than 2020 (81.3%). 

  • How much control you have over your life. 78.7% said that they felt they had as much control as they wanted or had adequate control.  This was lower than 2020 (78.9%) 

  • Feeling safe. 69.2% of respondents stated that they felt as safe as they wanted.  This was lower than 2020 (74.2%)

  • How the way I am helped and treated makes me feel about myself. 89.9% stated it made them feel better or did not affect the way they felt. This was worse than 2020 (92.6%) 

  • In the past year have you found it easy or difficult to find information and advice about support, services or benefits, where 66% of those who had tried to find information had found it fairly or very easy. This was lower than 72.1% in 2020

Comparison with the national results

Peterborough performed better than the England average on the following areas:

  • How well your house is designed to meet your needs
  • Getting around indoors (excepting steps)
  • Support to have a better quality of life
  • Help keeping your home clean and comfortable
  • Help getting food and drink
  • Help keeping clean and presentable in appearance
  • Care and support helping you to have control over your daily life
  • Overall quality of life
  • Overall satisfaction with care and support services
  • How you spend your time
  • Having care and support making you feel better about yourself
  • Choice over care and support
  • Having control over your life
  • How the way you are treated makes you feel
  • Finding it easy to find information and advice about support, services and benefits

In the section about overall experience and outcomes Peterborough scored higher than the England average on 8 out of 9 questions.

Local questions

Alongside the national questions Peterborough asked two local questions. 

What do you use to find information and advice about services or benefits? 

Family and friends  

136 

48.1% 

Advice from a professional 

62 

21.9% 

Internet 

58 

20.5% 

Telephone helpline 

43 

15.2% 

Leaflet / Newsletter 

41 

14.5% 

Not Applicable 

38 

13.4% 

Advice from a voluntary or community group 

28 

9.9% 

Other 

28 

9.9% 

Free text questions were also included to ask what respondents thought adult social care did well and what we could do better.   Below are some of the key themes identified from responses to these questions:  

 Key themes - What do you think we do well? 

  • Lots of positive comments about care provision, in particular day opportunities, supported employment and  supported living 
  • Consistency of support staff 
  • Support with social activities and social contact 
  • Training and positive attitude of staff 

Key themes – What could we do better? 

  • Care call time too short or rushed and not always on time or cancelled 
  • More staff, more day care 
  • More opportunities for social contact, support to have visitors, and support with relationships 
  • Better communication between support services 
  • More respite 
  • Easier access to information and to be able to contact services, including accessible formats 
  • Better pay for staff  
  • Requests for a return to / more face-to-face contact 
What are we doing about the results?

Improving control over daily life 

We are doing further work to ensure the wishes of the person are clearly fed into care and support plans and safeguarding enquiries.  Practice audits will focus on this area.

Improving social contact

Our care and support planning is focusing on supporting people to maintain social networks. We are also working with Voiceability to ensure information for people with a learning disability is accessible. 

Overall satisfaction

We learn from complaints to address issues that commonly cause dissatisfaction.  

We also share case studies and compliments we receive when we have got things right so that we can learn from practice that delivers good outcomes too.   

For this survey there was a local question added around what we do well and what we could do better.  The responses to this question will be fed into our service improvement workstreams.   

We have also been working with our co-production forums to develop customer feedback questionnaires.  These will become part of our day-to-day work.  This will mean that we have a better real time view of the experience of those accessing adult social care.  

Access to information and advice

Access to information and advice is one of the key priorities identified by our Partnership Boards.  We continue to work with the Boards to find ways to improve accessibility.  

As part of this work we have reviewed our standard letters to ensure they are more informative.  We also working with the Network Team at Enabling Independence to ensure information for people with a learning disability is accessible.

Work is currently underway to make health and social care information more aligned.  GPs and other NHS staff will use the new social prescribing websites and referral system across health and social care.

Helping people to feel safe

Work has been done in the past to understand what might lead to people feeling unsafe.

The most common theme for older people was the fear of falling whilst outside the house. 

For younger adults with learning disability it was fear of crime in their local neighbourhood.  

We will be doing some further work with our co-production groups to explore if the reasons for feeling unsafe have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic and to consider how support services might help people to feel safe.

External Links

  1. NHS Digital Report - Personal Social Services Adult Social Care Survey, England, 2021-22

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