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 Healthwatch England's 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 Healthwatch England have found out
Healthwatch England 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.
Their 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
Healthwatch England gave all respondents multiple options and asked them where they would go for information if they needed social care support. Their 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 they 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.
They 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 their 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 they 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.
To read why it's time for better information and signposting click here