Adult Social Care leaflets review - People Bank involvement

What our user testers said                     

How we responded

Guide to Adult Social Care leaflet

1. Could you include a line on the opening page about being able to access the booklet online, where you can click on the links rather than typing them in.

1. There is information about accessing other formats at the end of the booklet. There isn’t an obvious place to put this line at the start, but we’ll consider this for the future.

2. Would it be helpful to have a line saying Children’s Services are a different department and give a number?

2. The leaflet is plainly presented as an Adult Social Care leaflet. We’re therefore confident it would not be picked up by someone looking for information on Children’s Services.

3. Could the leaflet explain that eligibility could include problems associated with older age, as many people don’t consider themselves ‘disabled’.

3. The language used in this section is taken from the Care Act and must remain as it is for legal reasons.

4. The list on page 9 feels awkward carrying over onto page 10.

4. Agreed. Our design team will rectify this.

5. Terms ‘liveable home’ and ‘personal relationships’ feel ambiguous, as they could mean different things to different people.

5. Unfortunately, this language is lifted from the Care Act regarding factors that make you eligible for care, so cannot be changed.

6. Adjust the sentence regarding financial assessments to say either ‘how much we think you can afford to pay…’ or ‘how much you need to pay…’. The current sentence feels assumptive and some people may think what they have to pay and what they feel they can afford are different things.

6. Agreed. The sentence has changed to ‘how much you need to pay’.

7. Should there be information on direct payments and assessing if someone is responsible enough to manage this on their own?

7. This section acts as a brief overview to explain what a Direct Payment is. Further detail can be found in our dedicated fact sheet for Direct Payments, which explains they are given to a suitable person, and the team will step in if the payment is not spent on assessed care and support needs.

8. Under the reference to another leaflet, could you include a link to access it?

8. The link in the following paragraph will take people to the leaflet. The wording has been changed to make this clear.

9. Put Health and Social Care Connect’s contact details next to the reference to them.

9. Contact details have been added.

What will you need to pay leaflet

1. Overall, it feels like a vast improvement from the previous version.

1. Thank you. We are glad to have achieved our aim for reviewing them to make improvements.

2. Will the leaflets be printed on cheaper paper to save money?

2. The leaflets are printed in-house on non-glossy paper to save costs.

3. The colour theme and headings don’t stand out and aren’t very distinct from the black text.

3. The actual colour that will be implemented by the design team onto the final version is slightly different and is more distinctive from the black text.

4. Would prefer to have a content page, as despite the good layout, it’s nice to have reference to a specific section.

4. A contents page will be added to the printed version of the leaflet.

5. The bullet points make it easy to read, the terminology is good and worded in a way I can understand, and the tone feels neutral. I’m glad there aren’t pictures either to avoid it looking messy.

5. We are glad that the leaflet has achieved this positive feedback and feels like it’s easy to understand and engage with.

6. On page 1, sentence is missing an ‘or’ to make the phrase ‘either/or’.

6. Word ‘or’ added.

7. Should there be a link or more information to tell people who don’t know what Disability Related Expenditure (DRE) is?

7. Disability Related Expenditure will be explained to those necessary during the financial assessment.

8. The sentence ‘land, buildings, and property’ should end in ‘…that you don’t own or live in’ as you cannot ‘live’ in land.

8. We are confident people will understand that ‘live in’ refers to property and not land.

9. Change sentence regarding financial assessments and property to ‘We do not include the value of the home that you own’.

9. Sentence changed to ‘If you own your home, we do not include the value’.

10. Do state benefits include disability benefits? If so, then state it.

10. Yes, it includes all benefits. However, it’s too complex to explain the rules around benefits in this leaflet. We have additional fact sheets with more details on this that people can refer to, which are provided to people who have a financial assessment.

11. Change the sentence regarding pensions to ‘…state, private, and workplace pensions.’.

11. Word ‘state’ added to sentence.

12. In the paragraph regarding provision, change the word ‘show’ in the second sentence to ‘provide’ to keep consistency.

12. To avoid repetition of the same word but to also avoid the word ‘show’, we’ve changed it to ‘If you do not share these documents…’.

13. When referring to advising on how to apply for benefits, should it also mention how additional benefits might affect their financial assessment outcome? Also move the reference to the additional information factsheet to the end of the booklet with the other leaflet information.

13. This section is about making sure people get the benefits they are entitled to, e.g., Attendance Allowance, which many don’t claim even though they are entitled to it. We explain that this is considered as income when we support people to apply for them. Stating it in the leaflet might create unnecessary worry for people. Regarding the fact sheet, we have it here as it is specific to this section, whereas the end section has more generic references to additional information.

14.  It doesn’t explain how payment is collected on top of the day service contribution. ‘We charge for our delivered meals service’ doesn’t feel clear if you’re paying for the actual meals, or for the service of delivering it.

14. Wording amended to state that we will invoice people to collect payment. The wording regarding charging for the delivered meals service was chosen as the charge covers both the meal and its delivery as an entire service.

15. Amend sentence on charges for residential or nursing care to ‘We will not include the value of the home you own and reside in for the first 12 weeks’.

15. Sentence wording has been changed to make it clearer it is the home you own and live in.

16. Make it clearer that not only will you be charged the difference if your contribution is valued as higher than the initial set value people paid for care, but that you will also be refunded the difference if your assessed contribution turns out to be lower than the set value initially paid.

16. The sentence has been changed to make this clear that it can go both ways.

17. Change wording to ‘printed copies.’.  

17. Wording changed.

Do you look after someone? leaflet

1. The leaflet reads well, is clear, and I understood everything it said.

1. We are delighted to hear that the leaflet is accessible and easy to understand.

2. Move the line ‘They can:’ at the beginning of the list to sit on the next page instead.

2. The design will be adjusted to move this wording to sit on the next page, so the list isn’t broken up.

3. The ‘key questions are:’ list should be rephrased to be actual questions as opposed to statements.

3. Unfortunately, this would increase the word count. Therefore, to keep it succinct without losing meaning we will keep them as statements.

4. The line ‘This service provides…’ would sit better at the start of the page immediately under the heading.

4. Agreed. This will be adjusted by the design team.