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Social Care User Surveys (ASCS and SACE Data Collections)

Each year we carry out user surveys to get feedback from service users. Survey information is gathered by councils with social services responsibility, and these pages contain guidance for them.

Page contents

Revisions policy

This revisions policy relates to the adult social care statistics collected and published by NHS Digital described on this page:

  • there are no routinely planned revisions to the statistics once published (this can occur for some statistics when they are originally published as ‘provisional’ and then updated to ‘final’ – this is not the case for adult social care statistics)
  • unscheduled revisions may take place where an error has been found in NHS Digital’s statistical publication process. Processes are automated where possible and continually reviewed, checked and documented to minimise risk of error. Where an unscheduled revision has occurred we will ensure this is flagged and explained to users in a transparent way.
  • revisions to the data provided to NHS Digital by local authorities is only permitted during the data collection ‘refresh submission period’ (a period of time after the mandated submission deadline and before publication, where data providers have access to a data quality validation report from NHS Digital). Once the deadline for the refresh window has passed no further changes can be made

Social Care surveys guidance and materials

Survey of Adult Carers in England (SACE)

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Survey of Adult Carers in England, 2023-24 guidance for local authorities

This survey has been developed to learn more about whether services received by carers are helping them in their caring role and their life outside of caring, and their perception of the services provided to the person they care for.

Adult Social Care Survey (ASCS)

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Adult Social Care User Survey (ASCS) 2023-24 guidance and materials for councils

The Adult Social Care Survey (ASCS) 2022-23 asks service users questions about quality of life and what impact care and support services have on their quality of life. This page contains the survey administration guidance document and the materials required for councils to undertake the survey.

Why do we need a national survey?

The adult social care survey asks people who are over 18 and who use adult social care about their experiences. We run this questionnaire every year. The questionnaire looks at how these services are helping people to live safely and independently in their own homes.

How are the surveys used and how do we use the surveys?

To provide assured, consistent and comparable local data on care outcomes. It is the most significant pool of personal outcome information for people receiving adult social care.

  • To support transparency and accountability, enabling people to make better choices about their care.
  • To help local services identify areas where outcomes can be improved in a very challenging financial climate, and support their own initiatives with an assured vehicle for obtaining outcome information.
  • To populate outcome measures in the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework.

Using the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) measure

ASCOT (Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit) is the source for questions 3a, 4a, 5a, 6a, 7a, 8a, 9a and 11 in the Adult Social Care Survey, ASCOT is designed to capture information about an individual's social care-related quality of life (SCRQoL). ASCOT is owned by the University of Kent and permission is granted for the sole purpose of this ASCS survey, any other use would be considered as a breach of copyright. Users wishing to make any other use of the ASCOT materials should contact the ASCOT team. For further information, please visit the ASCOT website.

Further information

Last edited: 29 November 2023 11:31 am