Appendix A: Policy context

The Survey of Adult Carers in England (SACE) exists in a national policy context in which increasing consideration has been given to the role of carers. In 2008 the government introduced the national carers strategy, concerned with the provision of support to ensure carers’ financial, mental and physical wellbeing. The strategy moved towards focusing on the capacity of carers to fulfil their educational and employment potential; to recognise themselves as carers; to have a family and community life; and as expert care givers, to be involved in designing care provision at a local and individual level.

In 2014 the Care Act put carers on an equal footing with the people they care for. It allows for provisions such as simplifying assessments, giving carers a legal right to support if they are eligible and setting the minimum level at which carers become eligible for support. The Act consolidates past legislation and regulation and aims for greater transparency, accountability and personalisation in health and social care.

Since 2012-13 SACE has provided additional outcome-focused intelligence information on carers and the services they receive. It measures the extent to which services improve carers’ ability to care and live a life outside the caring role. The need to assess the impact on carers of the provision and quality of services provided to service users is also important.

Data from the survey is not just intended to be used to monitor performance through national outcome measures but also to be used locally to inform delivery of service and support and to monitor and develop standards. Whilst some councils may undertake regular feedback via their agreements with service providers, this survey gives a greater insight into outcomes for carers and provides a consistent basis for comparing results across different areas. Recent feedback from councils has confirmed that NHS England user and carer surveys have played an important role in monitoring and improving local service provision.

The purpose of the survey will be to provide assured, benchmarked local data on outcomes, to support local services to think about ways of improving outcomes in a very challenging financial climate. It also allows councils to benchmark against their comparators. The survey is constructed so that an individual outcome can be disaggregated into constituent groups. Therefore, as well as providing an overall quality of life index, the survey provides intelligence on whether specific groups experience better outcomes, whether services are meeting all outcome needs, and, in time, the value-added by social services.

On completion of the survey councils might consider sharing the questionnaire locally with other organisations especially voluntary organisations and health partners. This will enable CASSRs to obtain similar information about carers not known to Social Services and may yield interesting local level data for comparison. This should only be done after the SACE fieldwork has been completed to avoid a potential problem of carers known to both councils and voluntary organisations receiving two questionnaires. If councils do decide to do this however, then this should be used to complement local analysis and should not be returned to NHS England.