Health and Care Experience Survey 2023/24: National Results

Experiences of Carers

Characteristics of Carers and support received

The survey estimates that 16% of respondents regularly help, support or look after someone because they are living with long-term physical / mental health / disability or problems related to old age.

42% of people who provide regular care or support, care for a parent or grandparent.

Note: Respondents were able to tick more than one response so percentages will not sum to 100.

Carers were asked if they received any help in their role over the past year.

39% of carers receive no support to help with their caring role, but do not need any. 14% of carers do not get any support or help, but feel they need some, and 4% receive some support or help, but feel they need more.

Note: Respondents were able to tick more than one response so percentages will not sum to 100.

The survey also asked whether carers had received an assessment or written plan of their caring role. The majority, 89%, responded that they hadn’t. Only 6% responded ‘Yes’, with 5% saying they didn’t know.

Impact of caring and support for carers

Carers were asked whether they agreed with a number of statements about how they feel as a carer most of the time, based on the principles of person-centred care. As in previous sections, we classify responses where they agree or strongly disagree with the statement as ‘positive’, responses where they neither agree nor disagree as neutral, and responses where they disagree or strongly disagree as negative.

• 62% of carers agree with the statement ‘I have a good balance between caring and other things in my life’, this is similar to 2021/22 (63%) and slightly lower than in 2019/20 (64%). This is the most positively rated person-centred statement.
• About 31% of carers agree or strongly agree with the statements ‘I feel supported to continue caring’ and ‘Local services are well coordinated for the person(s) I look after’. This is slightly higher than in 2021/22 (30% and 29% respectively), but lower than in 2019/20 (34% and 38% respectively).

62% of carers agree with the statement ‘I have a good balance between caring and other things in my life.