Possibly the most important measure of social care is what the service users themselves think of the care they have been given.

Each year the NHS Information Centre carries out user surveys to get feedback from service users. Information for the surveys is gathered by councils with social services responsibility. These pages contain guidance for these councils.

Social Services User Survey Group oversees a programme of user experience surveys for social services, developing their content and advising on the methodology.

We asked the Office for National Statistics to review the methodology of the annual Social Care User Experience Survey. The report of the ONS Review of Methodology for Adult Social Care Survey provides a number of recommendations and suggestions. The NHS IC and the members of the Social Services User Survey Group (SSUSG) investigated these and the outcome of this investigation is provided in the SSUSG Response to the ONS Review.

Guidance for the 2011-12 Adult Social Care Survey

• Guidance for the 2011-12 Adult Social Care Survey

Guidance on running and using the results from user experience surveys

This links to a series of pages which will help councils run their own surveys, make better use of the data from national User Experience Surveys and share best practice.

• Running surveys and using the results

Guidance for surveys from previous years

• Guidance for the 2010-11 Adult Social Care Survey
• Guidance for the 2009-10 User Experience Survey of Carers and User Experience Survey of Adults recieving community equipment and/or a minor adaptations
• guidance for the personal social services user experience survey of older people (aged 65 and over) receiving home care 2008-09
• guidance for the personal social services user experience survey of adults receiving community equipment or a minor adaptation
• guidance for the personal social services user experience survey of adults aged 18-64 with a physical disability or sensory impairment 2006-07
• guidance for the personal social services user experience survey of older people receiving home care 2005-06
• guidance for the children's user experience survey 2004-05 can be found on the Department for Education and Skills website.
• guidance for user surveys from before 2005 can be found on the Department of Health website.

Published results from our user surveys can be found in our adult social care publications section,