Care, support and help with everyday living

This section presents the results of new analysis of questions from 2015-16 to 2023-24, related to people’s experiences of the help, care or support they received over the previous 12 months.

The people responding to the questions presented in this section are people who said that in the last 12 months they had received help for themselves with personal or household tasks, help for themselves with activities outside the home, or help such as adaptations and/or equipment for their home.

The results presented here will be different to those presented in the HACE national results for each year for the same questions, as they refer to the experiences of slightly different groups of people. In addition, we excluded one question from this analysis, bercause it had changed substantively between years. See the Data and Methdology section for more information.

You should continue to use the figures in the main HACE national results reports for figures from individual survey years, and for any time series referring to years before 2015-16. You should use the figures in this report to understand the changes in people’s experiences over time, between 2015-16 and 2023-24.

Overall rating of help, care or support services

Survey recipients were asked ‘Overall, how would you rate your help, care or support services? Please exclude the care and help you get from friends and family.’

Figure 1: There has generally been a decrease in the proportion of respondents rating their care as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ over time.

Overall rating of help, care or support services (excluding care from friends and family), 2015-16 to 2023-24, weighted percentages.

The proportion of people rating the overall help, care or support services they received as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ was similar in 2015-16 and 2017-18. However, it then decreased in 2019-20, and again in 2021-22.

The proportion of people rating their help, care or support as excellent or good in the most recent results (2023-24) was similar to the proportion in 2021-22.

People’s experiences of care services

Participants were asked whether they agreed with seven statements relating to their experience of receiving care, support and help with everyday living over the past 12 months. They were asked to exclude any help received from friends and family.

The statements were as follows:

‘I was aware of the help, care and support options available to me’

‘I had a say in how my help, care or support was provided’

‘People took account of the things that mattered to me’

‘I felt safe’

‘I was supported to live as independently as possible’

‘My health, support and care services seemed to be well coordinated’

‘The help, care or support improved or maintained my quality of life’

Survey respondents could choose an option on a 5-point scale, that ranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree. As with the main HACE national reports, responses of strongly agree or agree were classified as ‘positive’, responses of neither agree nor disagree were classified as ‘neutral’ and responses of disagree or strongly disagree as ‘negative’.

Overall, positive responses to all statements have decreased between 2015-16 and 2023-24, indicating that people have been having a less positive experience of care services over time. The biggest decreases in positive responses were between the years 2017-18, 2019-20 and 2021-22. There was a decrease in positive responses across all seven statements over these years. This reflects the pattern seen in people’s overall rating of their help, care or support services over this time, as reported in the previous section.

The changes in positive responses in the most recent year were less consistent across the statements. Agreement to the first four statements (‘I was aware of the help, care and support options available to me’, ‘I had a say in how my help, care or support was provided’, ‘People took account of the things that mattered to me’ and ‘I felt safe’) decreased further between 2021-22 and 2023-24. But agreement with the last three statements (‘I was supported to live as independently as possible’, ‘My health, support and care services seemed to be well coordinated’ and ‘The help, care or support improved or maintained my quality of life’) remained similar.

In 2015-16, the statement with the highest level of positive response was ‘People took account of the things that mattered to me’. However, this statement also saw the largest decrease in positive responses between 2015-16 and 2023-24.

The statement with the lowest level of positive response in 2015-16 was ‘I was aware of the help, care and support options available to me’.

In 2023-24, the statements with the highest level of positive response were ‘I felt safe’, and ‘I was supported to live as independently as possible’. As in 2015-16, the statement with the lowest level of positive response in 2023-24 was ‘I was aware of the help, care and support options available to me’.

The statement with the smallest decrease in positive response between 2015-16 and 2023-24 was ‘I felt safe’.

Figure 2: The proportion of people agreeing with the statement ‘I was aware of the help, care and support options available to me’ has generally been decreasing over time.

Percentage of positive responses, 2015-16 to 2023-24, weighted percentages.

This statement had the lowest positive response of all seven statements in both 2015-16 and in 2023-24. The percentage of positive responses also decreased between 2021-22 and 2023-24.

Figure 3: The proportion of people agreeing with the statement ‘I had a say in how my help, care or support was provided’ has generally been decreasing over time.

Percentage of positive responses, 2015-16 to 2023-24, weighted percentages.

As with the previous statement, the percentage of positive responses to this statement decreased between 2021-22 and 2023-24.

Figure 4: The proportion of people agreeing with the statement ‘People took account of the things that mattered to me’ has generally been decreasing over time.

Percentage of positive responses, 2015-16 to 2023-24, weighted percentages.

This statement had the highest level of positive response of all seven statements in 2015-16. However, it also had the largest decrease in positive responses between 2015-16 and 2023-24, with agreement decreasing by 27 percentage points.

As with the previous two statements, the percentage of positive responses to ‘People took account of the things that mattered to me’ decreased between 2021-22 and 2023-24.

Figure 5: The proportion of people agreeing with the statement ‘I felt safe’ has generally been decreasing over time.

Percentage of positive responses, 2015-16 to 2023-24, weighted percentages.

‘I felt safe’ and ‘I was supported to live as independently as possible’ were the statements with the highest positive responses in 2023-24. But the proportion of positive responses to the statement ‘I felt safe’ decreased by 20 percentage points between 2015-16 and 2023-24.

As with the previous three statements, the percentage of positive responses to ‘I felt safe’ decreased between 2021-22 and 2023-24.

Figure 6: The proportion of people agreeing with the statement ‘I was supported to live as independently as possible’ has generally been decreasing over time.

Percentage of positive responses, 2015-16 to 2023-24, weighted percentages

‘I was supported to live as independently as possible’ and ‘I felt safe’ were the statements with the highest positive responses in 2023-24.

The percentage of positive responses to ‘I was supported to live as independently as possible’ was similar in 2021-22 and 2023-24.

Figure 7: The proportion of people agreeing with the statement ‘My health, support and care services seemed to be well coordinated’ has generally been decreasing over time.

Percentage of positive responses, 2015-16 to 2023-24, weighted percentages.

As with the previous statement, the percentage of positive responses to ‘My health, support and care services seemed to be well coordinated’ was similar in 2021-22 and 2023-24.

Figure 8: The proportion of people agreeing with the statement ‘The help, care or support improved or maintained my quality of life’ has generally been decreasing over time.

Percentage of positive responses, 2015-16 to 2023-24, weighted percentages.

As with the previous two statements, the percentage of positive responses to ‘The help, care or support improved or maintained my quality of life’ was similar in 2021-22 and 2023-24.