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Survey of Adult Carers in England (SACE) Data validation and submission process January 2024

Main dates

Submission date is currently open

The main dates are below:

  • 30 November 2023: end of field work
  • 29 February 2024: mandated submission deadline (5.00pm)
  • 13 March 2024: Data quality reports available
  • 3 April 2024: Refresh submission deadline (5.00pm)
  • June 2024: Provisional publication date

Filling in the data return

Only the final version of the data return can be used to submit data to NHS England.

The final data return is available to download from the Strategic Data Collection System (SDCS).

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 sent to NHS England.

If councils require a copy of the unprotected data return, please email [email protected] to request it. Please 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.


Data return

Download the final version of data return by going to Submission New then clicking on Download Proforma in SDCS.

NHS England social care collection submission portal page

 


Filling in the data return

Contradictory answers

  • If two or more boxes are ticked for a question in which only one box should be ticked, the response must be recorded as “Unknown” (-9)
  • If a respondent has chosen conflicting answers for a question that asks them to “tick all that apply” or for two different questions, responses must be recorded as reported


Reminder questionnaires

Councils should record which version of the questionnaire was used, i.e. either the original or the reminder. If the questionnaire was completed on the original version but after the reminder letter was sent out, the respondent should still be coded as replying to the original version.


Pasting in responses

If pasting responses into the data return, the data needs to be pasted in as valuesto ensure validations are not affected.

Accepting surveys

Councils can choose how long to accept surveys once the fieldwork period has ended. This will not affect the mandated deadline of 29 February 2024. Councils should note how many surveys were accepted after the fieldwork period ended in ‘Survey Process Information’ worksheet of their data return.


Additional questions / Free text boxes

Councils should not include data from any additional questions or free text boxes in the data return that is submitted to NHS England.


Changes to the data return

The changes to the data return are explained in the 2023 changes worksheet in the data return

Main points to note are:

  • a new question on loneliness has been added as question 16, all subsequent question numbers have been renumbered
  • the COVID-19 questions have been removed
  • validation reports will be automatically emailed to the email address provided in the 'Sign Off Sheet'

Submitting data return

To submit your data return through SDCS

1. Click on choose file and select your data return then click create.

2. if you are resubmitting your data return, you will see a warning message informing you a submission has already been received. Tick allow resubmit to enable the new file to be sent. 

NHS England submission portal choose file highlighted

create social care submission screen a submission for this date already exists do you wish to resubmit it note

 


Submitting data return SDCS validations

SDCS will carry out a number of validation checks before the file successfully submits. Some validations are errors that prevent the data return from being submitted, others are warnings. Once the checks are complete, you will receive an automated email that informs you if the data return was successfully sent and a list of validation issues.

The validation summary provides a summary of the validation issues and warnings.

submission screen validation summary of the validation issues and warnings

 


Submitting data return SDCS validations

The email will have a link to the validation summary on SDCS. If you download all validations you can see which warnings and errors have been identified.

Thank you for submitting your SACE collection email. The following potential issues with your successful submission has been identified with example issue displayed.


Submitting data return SDCS validations

Example report

example report showing validation messages and validation summary

Errors include:

  • missing data on the sign off sheet
  • sample sizes being larger than the eligible population


Warnings include:

  • missing data admin data in Carers_Data worksheet
  • duplicate serial numbers in Service User Data

The location and column are for SDCS reference only, please use the message to identify the warning or error.


Validations

A number of validation checks have been entered onto the data return; councils should check these before submitting the data to NHS England. In particular, councils should check any conditional formatting flags in the ‘Carers_Data’ worksheet and review the summary data in the ‘Validation_Tables’ worksheet.

For the 2023-24 SACE the validator process has been updated so councils receive an automated validation report when they make a successful submission through SDCS.

validation worksheet

The report will be sent to the email address provided in the sign off sheet in the data return (shown in yellow). If the email address is not valid, the report cannot be sent. Please ensure the email address entered here is correct.

Once a submission (or re-submission) has been made through SDCS this will automatically trigger the validator to run. An email of the outcome will be sent to the email address provided in the data return.


Validation report

The validation process will run throughout the working weeks of the submission window. Councils should get a validation report within an hour if a submission is made between 10am and 4pm on a working day. If the data return is submitted outside of these hours, it will be sent the next working day. If the validation report has not been received, please email the Adult Social Care team to notify them on [email protected].

The validator performs a number of checks on the data submitted, including:

  • are values entered valid for the admin data item or question?
  • have question responses been provided for a non-response record?
  • are multiple choice selections valid?

The validator does not check if the data is balanced or comparable to previous years. Nor does it look at the eligible population data.

Once SDCS closes, all councils that have made a successful submission will receive a data quality report. This will show a summary of the data submitted alongside the council’s previous year’s data and the mean for all councils. Figures will be highlighted where they differ to the all-mean average. It is hoped that the validator alongside the data quality report will allow councils to review the data submitted and identify any potential issues.

No validation issues found

If no validation issues are found, you will receive an email from Adult Social Care Open Data, similar to the one below.

Validation report data return received email

You can still resubmit the data if required. Each time you resubmit your return, you will receive a new validation report. 

Validation report issues found

If validation issues are found in the data return submission, an email from Adult Social Care Open Data will be sent, similar to the one below. This will provide the number of issues found and a link to the validation report.

Data return received email

When you click on the link in the email you will be directed to an area on the GOV.uk website where you can download your validation report.
Once you click on the ‘Continue’ button, you will be sent to another GOV.uk webpage where you are able to click on the link to download the Excel validation report.

Gov.uk  you have a file to download screen

Validation report issues found

When you download the report, you will receive a list of all validation issues found.

validation report gov.uk download your file screen

Each row is a separate issue and the serial number and Primary Key (PK) should help you identify the cell in the data return.

The message provides a reason why the value has been flagged.

LA_Code PK SerialNo Message
0 X26 X261 1 All question columns are marked as -9 for this entry
1 4X26 5X262 2 Column Q2a was 1 but should be blank when the person did not respond to the questionnaire
2 X26 X263 3 Column Q4 was 3 but should be blank when the person did not respond to the questionnaire
3 X26 X264 4 Column Q16 was 4 but should be blank when the person did not respond to the questionnaire
4 X26 X265 5 Column Advocate must be 2 when the person did not respond to the questionnaire
5 X26 X266 6 Column Advocate must be 2 when the person did not respond to the questionnaire
6 X26 X267 7 Column Interpreter must be 2 when the person did not respond to the questionnaire
7 X26 X268 8 Column Interpreter must be 2 when the person did not respond to the questionnaire

 

Validation report –validator failed to run

There may be issues in the data return that prevent the validator from running; this includes having a missing extract date and the structure of the data return differing to the template. If the validator fails to run, NHS England will contact the council.

If you have any queries on the validation process or on any of the issues flagged in a validation report, please contact us using: [email protected].


Data quality reports

The Data Quality report summarises the information you have provided and compares to the mean for all councils that submitted by the 29 February 2024 mandated deadline.

  • 2021-22 survey data is also included for comparison
  • percentages are highlighted where your 2023-24 outcome is more than two standard deviations away from the all council 2023-24 mean

Upon receipt of your data quality report please:

  • read and review the data quality document and ensure you are happy with the data you have already submitted to NHS England
  • consider whether you would like to make any amendments and resubmit your data. All resubmissions must be received by the final deadline
  • provide any additional information or explanations for the data you have submitted where this is felt to be necessary as this could be incorporated into the data quality section of the official statistics report

The Data Quality reports consist of 5 main sections.

These are:

Eligible population checks

The eligible population section compares the eligible population to the 2022-23 SALT data. Differences are highlighted when they differ by more than 20%.

Administrative data proportion checks

The administrative data shows the percentage distribution of the sample for each administrative data item. The missing and unknown data is excluded from the calculations. The 2023-24 council data is shown alongside the councils previous years data and the mean for all councils that made a submission by the mandated deadline. 2023-24 council data is highlighted where it is statistically different to the all CASSR average.

Missing administrative data proportion checks

The missing administrative data table shows the percentage of records in the councils sample that are -9 (unknown), blank or inadmissible values. This is shown alongside the councils previous years missing data percentage and the mean for all councils. 2023-24 council data is highlighted where it is statistically different to the all CASSR average.

Question response rate checks

The overall questionnaire response rate for the council is provided. This is shown alongside the councils previous years response rate and the mean for all councils. The following rows of the table show the individual response rates for each of the survey questions. 2023-24 council data is highlighted where it is statistically different to the all CASSR average.

Question response proportion checks

The question response proportions show how the respondents have answered each of the survey questions. The missing and unknown data is excluded from the calculations. This is shown alongside the councils previous years data and the mean for all councils. 2023-24 council data is highlighted where it is statistically different to the all CASSR average.


Resubmissions

Submissions are encouraged as early as possible. You are welcome to make multiple submissions during the collection window, the most recent submission received when the window closes is the one that we will process.

All councils are expected to provide a complete and full submission by the mandated deadline, you will then receive a data quality report and feedback.

The data collection window will close at 5pm on the mandated deadline day (29 February) and then reopen after the data quality reports have been sent out (13 March).

There is then a validation period during which you will be able to resubmit your data, should you wish to do so. This is not compulsory but may be helpful. This service is available until the close of this validation period and this will be the Final Deadline (5pm on 3 April).


Support

If you would like to discuss any element of your validation report, data quality or submission please contact us using [email protected]; we are here to help.

The most recent submission received by NHS England by the final deadline will be used in the Survey of Adult Carers in England release. No data will be accepted after the final deadline.

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Last edited: 11 January 2024 12:12 pm