Getting social care right starts with good information and advice
Adult social care services help people with the practical support they might need to live independently. Many people benefit from social care support in different ways, including older people, those living with a physical or learning disability, and those who need short-term help after a stay in hospital.
In England, local authorities are responsible for providing their communities with information and advice about local social care services. They also organise and support care for those unable to fund it themselves, and can organise care services for self-funding individuals who may require assistance to do so.
This care can change people’s lives. But our latest findings show that people don’t always know where to turn for help. And when they do access services, they’re not always fully supported.
“We don’t know who to contact”: Steph’s story
Steph has three long-term health conditions and uses mobility aids to get around. Steph's husband had cared for her until he became ill himself.
They're both now in the situation where they provide unpaid care for each other, but without knowing where to go for help, they receive no carer's support.
Steph feels there are times when they could do with this help, as they are not always able to support each other fully. For instance, Steph feels she would benefit from having someone she could call on their worse days to support her and her husband when they cannot support each other.
She says: "We haven't contacted anybody, because we don't know who to contact. Sometimes we do need some care, but who do we call when you need that? I don't think social care is fit for purpose, not in the community."
What we have found out
We polled a representative sample of 1,800 adults living in England* to see how aware people are of social care support and whether people who tried to get help were getting what they needed.
Our research found that many adults are confused about who is responsible for providing them with social care, where they could turn if they need help and the process for accessing support.
People don’t always turn to local authorities for social care support
We gave all respondents multiple options and asked them where they would go for information if they needed social care support. Our respondents didn’t provide a unanimous answer.
The most common answer was their local authority, at 49%. This was closely followed by GP (46%), an internet search engine (41%), and the NHS website (37%).
Those from well-off households were more likely to correctly identify their local authority.
However, when we asked those who sought support who they spoke to first, these results painted a mixed picture:
- GPs and NHS workers were the most common port of call, with 42% of the respondents saying they spoke to a GP or other NHS professionals.
- Just 15% of the respondents turned to their local authorities.
- 15% also spoke with a family member or friend
- And seven per cent spoke to a charity.
Mixed awareness of the purpose of a social care assessment
To get social care support from your council, you must have an ‘adult social care assessment’. Your assessment may result in a more detailed conversation about how much support you would benefit from or the types of support available. But the primary purpose is to assess whether someone’s needs meet the eligibility criteria.
We asked people to select the primary purpose of this assessment.
- Only 40% of the respondents answered that the assessment is to determine if you are eligible for help.
- But just over a third of the respondents, 36%, said it was to assess how much support is needed.
- Men from lower-income households were more likely to be confused about the process.
People with additional needs may not be getting the care they need
Nearly a third of our respondents, 30%, said they had ‘additional needs’, such as a long-term illness, an invisible condition, informal caring responsibilities, or a learning disability.
People living with these needs often require support from social care services, however only 12% of those surveyed had accessed, wanted, or tried to access social care services. This suggests:
- Half of people with additional needs are not even accessing care.
- And of these twelve per cent of people we polled who are accessing care:
- 19% found both care and financial assessments not very or not at all helpful
- 17% found the support they receive not very or at all helpful.
Three things the findings indicate
The findings point to several issues:
- Many people don’t know where to go if they need social care support. And those who do are more likely to come from more well-off households.
- When people do have to try to access support, they’re more likely to speak to someone in the NHS. The number of people seeking support from GPs and NHS staff, rather than their council, indicates a potentially unnecessary burden is being placed on the NHS. There’s also a risk that if people are not going to the right place for information, they may miss out on the support they need.
- Low awareness of what social care assessments are for could be resulting in a disconnect between the public’s expectations and what services deliver. And for others, the assessment processes and quality of care and support are not meeting needs.
Why it’s time for better information and signposting
It’s vital that people can find accurate information on social care in a format suited to their communication preferences, from a source they can trust.
This advice is critical in helping people understand what help services can provide for them and their loved ones and how social care support is paid for.
As part of their responsibilities under the Care Act 2014, local authorities across England provide information and advice on local social care services. But under the current system, a lot is expected of the public to find this information themselves. People may already be in a crisis and need care when their search begins, and many instead turn to friends, family and the NHS.
We welcomed an announcement on the need for better information and advice in the Government’s ten-year vision for adult social care. A fund to pilot new ways of providing personalised advice about social care offers the opportunity to give more support to councils and to do things differently.
More resources for councils
Now, we want to see councils given the resources to be more proactive in their communication about social care and provide advice to people who may be living with their needs in silence.
Better integration
This can be achieved through better integration between health and care services, and the sharing of different types of data across the NHS and councils. Better integration is essential in targeting and providing support to unpaid carers and helping tackle health and care inequalities.
And from April 2023, good signposting and communication will be even more instrumental with local authorities carrying out new social care assessments following the introduction of a cap on personal care costs in the Government’s plan.
YouGov poll was carried out with a representative sample of 1739 adults living in England, between 4and 7March 2022.
