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Adult Social Care User Survey (ASCS) 2024-25 guidance and materials for councils

The Adult Social Care Survey (ASCS) asks service users questions about their quality of life and how this is affected by care and support services. 2024-25 is the fifteenth year the survey has taken place. This page contains the survey administration guidance document and the materials required for councils to undertake the survey.

Page contents

Guidance

This survey administration guidance  document sets out the actions that Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs) will need to perform in order to carry out the 2024-25 Adult Social Care Survey and provide the data to NHS England. CASSRs are strongly encouraged to read the guidance document fully before starting the survey.

Additional questions

Councils can add in up to a maximum of six additional questions into their survey, this includes questions from the question bank, previously approved questions, and new questions

  • previously approved additional questions, and questions from the question bank, do not need to be approved for use in the 2024-25 survey
  • all new additional questions need to be requested for approval via the Additional Question Request form, once approved they can be added to the survey
  • previously approved questions are available for consideration in the question bank on the NHS England website
  • the deadline for making new question requests is Friday 22nd November 2024

Sample size calculator

The sample size calculator informs CASSRs how many questionnaires they need to send out, based on their eligible population and anticipated response rate.

Questionnaires, letters and other materials

ASCS 2024-25 questionnaires

zip 13 MB

ASCS 2024-25 interview scripts

zip 12 MB

Translated materials

Translated versions of the questionnaire, covering letter, reminder letter and consent form will be made available here in 17 other languages.

Arabic translated materials

zip 8 MB

Bengali translated materials

zip 6 MB

Chinese (Mandarin) translated materials

zip 3 MB

French translated materials

zip 237 KB

Greek translated materials

zip 8 MB

Gujarati translated materials

zip 5 MB

Hindi translated materials

zip 4 MB

Italian translated materials

zip 231 KB

Polish translated materials

zip 10 MB

Portuguese translated materials

zip 11 MB

Punjabi Indian translated materials

zip 4 MB

Somali translated materials

zip 10 MB

Spanish translated materials

zip 11 MB

Tamil translated materials

zip 6 MB

Turkish translated materials

zip 8 MB

Urdu translated materials

zip 7 MB

Data return

The final data return is available through the Strategic Data Collection System (SDCS). For more information on SDCS, contact the data collections team at [email protected]. Only the final version that is available on SDCS can be submitted.

A draft version of the data return is available. 

The final data return is protected to ensure the structure of the data return is not changed. Councils are able to request an unprotected version of the data return for their internal use only.

The unprotected version of the data return must not be used for the submission that is made to NHS England. If councils require a copy of the unprotected data return, email [email protected] to request it.

Include in the email the reason you require the unprotected version of the data return and confirmation that you understand that only the version on SDCS can be used to submit data to NHS England. 

Validation

Councils will receive an automated validation report when they make a successful submission through SDCS. The report will be sent to the email address provided in the sign off sheet in the data return.

Learn more about the data from previous surveys

Last edited: 29 January 2025 10:42 am