Local authority (LA) decision-makers are understandably interested in knowing whether the services they provide are helping to improve the reported outcomes of carers who use their services. The impact of LA care and support services can be measured using data from the Carers’ survey and may therefore serve as a useful starting point for your PSS SACE analysis plan.
Why not just use ASCOF comparisons?
Direct comparisons of indicators in the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) – in particular, carer-reported quality of life [ASCOF 1D] – are commonly used for this purpose. These comparisons can provide useful information about the outcomes and experiences of services currently reported by carers and how these vary over time and/or between organisations.
Earlier research conducted here at the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) as part of the Identifying the Impact of Adult Social Care (IIASC) project, however, has identified a number of factors associated with the carer and care-recipient that affect quality of life but are beyond LA control [ADD LINK ]. This means that direct ASCOF comparisons only provide a partial picture, and that adjustments to the carer-reported quality of life scores are required to produce a more accurate and meaningful measure of service impact.
The Carer Quality of Life (QOL) tool
The adjustment calculation developed by the IIASC team is complicated and is enough to make even the most experienced analyst seriously consider a career change. So, to encourage LA analysts to generate adjusted QOL scores of service impact (and to avoid a mass exodus to the Job Centre), we have incorporated these calculations into an easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet.
The Carer QOL tool is available for download in the MAX toolkit and, as well as producing more accurate measures of service impact, produces numerical and visual summaries of the variables included in the calculations that can be used to guide further analysis (e.g. by identifying potential areas of unmet need) and be included in survey reports and presentations.
The tool is accompanied by a recorded presentation and step-by-step instructions on how to copy and paste the relevant data from your NHS Digital data return and to interpret the individual and group adjusted carer QOL scores.
Share your ideas and experiences!
We want the MAX toolkit to be useful and we rely on your feedback. So, if you have any questions that you would like to explore with your PSS SACE dataset and/or have any comments about the guides and tools included in the MAX toolkit, please let us know.
LA staff are also interested in learning about what other organisations are doing with their data. The MAX project team are therefore keen to collaborate with registered LA users to develop short case studies and worked examples of how they have used, or are using, the MAX toolkit. If you would like to find out more, please email us at maxproject@kent.ac.uk.
Disclaimer: this blog is confidential and has been issued for the purpose of restricted consultation and should not be quoted or circulated until finalised and approved for wider publication by the project funder.