Carers Assessment form user testing - People Bank Involvement

1. On the page before starting the form, it says you will need to register, but doesn’t explain how, or clearly allow someone to do that at the start.

1. A link labelled ‘Register’ has been added to allow people to register at the start if they wish to.

2. Is this form only completable online?

2. The form can be completed online or by phone.

3. Should web links be spelt out in case they don’t work?

3. If a link is broken, having them spelt out will not make a difference. The web links in the form comply with web accessibility standards.

4. Could Google translate be linked somewhere on the form?

4. Modern browsers can translate text on webpages by highlighting the text and right clicking to access the translation.

5. Question around willingness to provide care in the future could be clearer.

5. Question wording changed to ‘Are you able and willing to continue with your caring role?’.

6. Will the answer options for the question about getting out into my community result in different outcomes? I worry I wouldn’t get options for support if I answer that I can cope.

6. The only difference is the information provided about things that might help, not what support is offered.

7. Having answer options ‘I can’ and ‘I can’t’ above and below each other might make it easy for people to miss-read and select the wrong answer.

7. Wording changed to ‘…does not make…’ and ‘…makes…’.

8. Had difficulty entering age into the form.

8. Age is not needed as we already ask for date of birth. Changes made to make age auto populate if date of birth is filled in.

9. Misunderstood the term looked after child and wondered how my answer would influence the outcome. Should the term have capital letters?

9. Wording has been capitalised and an explanation added to explain being a Looked After Child may make you entitled to more support.

10.  The guidance information throughout the form inside the blue question marks is easy to miss. Make sure that people are aware of this function as the information in them is extremely helpful.

10. Guidance on using this function is on the pre-form page. We have amended this page to make the information more concise so that the guidance on this function stands out more.

11. The Fire and Rescue home safety check question feels random with its current wording, and it is not clear what the check involves or that it’s free.

11. The question and guidance have been amended to make it clear that the check is free and to explain what it includes.

12. When asking if someone has communication difficulties, there should be some examples provided. Some people may be unaware what we mean by communication difficulties or if they have one.

12. A list of examples of what we mean by communication difficulties has been added to the question.

13. There is no question asking if English is your second language or not.

13. This has been included as an example in the communication needs question.

14. The term ‘communication professional’ is not Plain English.

14. This question has been removed as it is not beneficial.

15. The question asking about care hours given in a week feels difficult to answer in hours per week. It should instead ask how many days per week or how many hours per day you care for someone.

15. This question is matched to existing assessments forms used in Adult Social Care so cannot be changed.

16.  The question asking how your care role affects your life doesn’t align with the question’s guidance information. It feels like it forces you to talk about only the positives of the care role.

16. This question is matched to existing assessments forms used in Adult Social Care so cannot be changed. The guidance information aims to be strengths based, empowering people to make informed decisions and achieve their goals by leveraging their own capacity for change. This is a UK Government standard approach.

17. The question asking about arrangements and contingency planning does not align with the question guidance information. The guidance feels more relevant to the question about how much time you can spend away from caring.

17. Guidance information has been rewritten to make it clear the question is about details of a contingency plan, and how much time you can spend away from caring as a consideration within the contingency plan.

18. Guidance information about local schemes you can register with should include contact details of these schemes.

18. This reference has been removed as there aren’t local schemes of this kind.

19. The final question is a helpful ‘sweep up’ one. However, some people may be fatigued by this point and not sure what else to mention, so prompts would be helpful.

19. Prompts have been added to the question to support people with thinking about any additional information they might want to add.