How satisfied are you with social care?

You never know when you might find yourself needing help with everyday things – like washing and dressing yourself, shopping and cooking, going out for an afternoon or even moving round your own home.  If that does happen, receiving good social care could be extremely important for your quality of life.

Surveys show that people from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups consistently report lower levels of satisfaction with social care they receive than white British people. We know from the 2011 Adult Social Care Survey, that 53% of Asian and Asian British people were extremely or very satisfied with their social care provision compared with 63% of white British people.

We want to understand why there is a different level of satisfaction amongst BME groups. To help us find out why, we would like to speak to members of Pakistani, Bangladeshi communities to hear about their experiences of receiving social care. We are focusing on these two communities as they more likely to have a longstanding illness requiring care and have reported some of the lowest satisfaction. We would also like to speak to white British people about their experience of social care. People talking part in an interview will receive a thank you payment of £20 for their time.

We expect that our work will highlight some important issues about how social care is delivered to and received by care users from different ethnic groups, which will ultimately improve the experience of social care.

You can help us by getting involved. If you or someone you know living in London, Birmingham or Leeds receives social care please let them know about this research. For further information or to find out if you or someone you know is eligible to participate contact freephone 0808 1688579 or email valdeep.gill@natcen.ac.uk.

How satisfied are you with social care?