Developing a survey of carers’ experience of services and quality of life

Between November 2009 and February 2010, a questionnaire was sent to a sample of carers across England for the Department of Health’s 2009-2010 National Carers’ Experience Survey. The aim of the survey was to measure the quality of local social care services and to help monitor the impact of the Government’s National Strategy for Carers by looking at carers’ quality of life. The questionnaire used in the survey was developed during worked carried out in the two years prior to the survey. This presentation outlines the development of this survey from its origins in developmental work with carers in focus groups through one on one testing with carers in cognitive interviews before it was used in a local carers’ survey carried out by Kent County Council, the results of which fed into the next stage of the development of the questionnaire, which included further cognitive testing with carers.

As well as outlining the process through which the questionnaire was developed the presentation will discuss some of issues raised during this development work. Both the focus groups and the one to one cognitive interviews with carers provided rich data in their own right. As well as informing the development of the questionnaire, the development work provided an insight into the lives of carers and the people they care for. In particular, carers talked about the impact caring has on their quality of life, what would help them improve their quality of life and their experiences of services designed to help both them and the person they care for.