The Personal Social Services Adult Social Care Survey (ASCS) is an annual survey for England that took place for the thirteenth time in 2022 to 2023. Service users were sent questionnaires by councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs) from January to March 2023, to seek their opinions on a range of outcome areas.
The survey asks long-term service users about their experiences of care and support. The survey seeks to learn more about how effectively services are helping service users to live safely and independently, and the impact these services have on their quality of life.
The survey covers all service users aged 18 and over who receive long-term support services funded or managed by social services following a full assessment of need.
The survey had a 22% response rate. 435 people responded out of 1,985 who were sent a survey.
349 people provided written comments.
The 10 main themes of the survey were:
90% of respondents were satisfied with their care and support services.
69% were very or extremely satisfied.
People valued:
Many service users said the best thing about their care service was having companionship and seeing friendly faces.
People valued:
Many people were satisfied with the way the staff respected their individual needs and made adjustments in the areas of communication, personal care, culture, mental health and food.
Some people wanted:
Some people reported having a good experience with the assessment process and said their care package adequately met their needs.
Other people wanted:
Many people were aware of funding cuts in the care sector and were concerned about their care being taken away.
People were concerned about:
Several people said the Direct Payments system worked well, that their payments were prompt and their budget was adequate.
People valued:
People were happy with being able to choose their own carer.
People valued:
People wanted:
People valued:
People wanted:
After rating how safe they felt, service users were asked “If you have told us you don't feel safe, can you please tell us why?".
In response, people mentioned:
36% had not tried to find information about services and support in the last year. Of those who had tried to find information about services and support in the last year, 67% had found it easy and 33% had found it difficult
People wanted:
We were above the national average score for social contact, however, fewer people reported being connected and supported by their community such as family, friends, and neighbours.
For Brighton and Hove survey respondents 30% of people living in the community and 19% of people in nursing/residential care wanted more social contact.
Survey responses are used to populate the measures below.
No survey was conducted from 2020 to 2021.
| Measure | Brighton & Hove City Council 2018 to 2019 | Brighton & Hove City Council 2019 to 2020 | Brighton & Hove City Council 2021 to 2022 | Brighton & Hove City Council 2022 to 2023 | All England 2022 to 2023 | Peer average group 2022 to 2023 | Findings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quality of life | 19.4 | 19.3 | 18.7 | 19.4 | 19.0 | 19.0 | We are above the group average | |
| Control | 79.9 | 77.7 | 80.9 | 84.6 | 77.2 | 77.6 | We are above the group average | |
| Social contact | 47.8 | 45.5 | 37.5 | 50.2 | 44.4 | 44.6 | We are above the group average | |
| Satisfaction with services | 65.7 | 64.6 | 62.3 | 68.8 | 64.4 | 64.3 | We are above the group average | |
| Easy to find information | 72.4 | 69.3 | 65.0 | 67.4 | 67.2 | 66.2 | We are above the group average | |
| Feel safe | 71.5 | 71.5 | 63.7 | 73.2 | 69.7 | 68.8 | We are above the group average | |
| Services help me feel safe | 89.3 | 88.1 | 78.9 | 85.2 | 87.1 | 86.4 | We are below the group average |
These percentage figures show:
Local/national differences could be due to health conditions, profiles of service users who responded or other factors. We cannot identify the specific contribution of councils’ adult social care towards these outcomes.