The percentage of respondents to the Adult Social Care Survey (service users) who responded to the question "Thinking about how much contact you've had with people you like, which of the following statements best describes your social situation?" with the answer "I have as much social contact as I want with people I like".

This measure applies to those people in receipt, at the point that data are extracted, of long-term support services funded or managed by social services following a full assessment of need.

Rationale There is clear link between loneliness and poor mental and physical health. A key element of the Government's vision for social care is to tackle loneliness and social isolation, supporting people to remain connected to their communities and to develop and maintain connections to their friends and family. This measure will draw on self-reported levels of social contact as an indicator of social isolation for both users of social care and carers.

Definition of numerator The number of respondents to the Adult Social Care Survey (service users) who responded to the question "Thinking about how much contact you've had with people you like, which of the following statements best describes your social situation?" with the answer "I have as much social contact as I want with people I like".

Definition of denominator The number of people responding to the question "Thinking about how much contact you've had with people that you like" in the Adult Social Care Survey (service users).

Caveats

Note: Isles of Scilly and City of London are exempt from the survey as the number of service users within their area who met the survey eligibility criteria are generally too small to guarantee statistically robust results. However, City of London has submitted data in some years, including in the 2021 to 2022 dataset, when it had sufficient numbers for statistically robust reporting.

Lewisham Council did not submit data for 2021 to 2022 due to a change in staffing and lack of awareness of the ASCS. Hackney Council was unable to submit ASCS data for 2021 to 2022 due to a serious cyber attack. No data was available for Hackney for 2022 to 2023. To maintain comparability with previous years, NHS Digital used 2019 to 2020 data from Hackney in the England and regional aggregated totals. Further details are available in the Adult Social Care Activity and Finance data quality report.

Covid-19 has impacted adult social care data collections, processing, and quality assurance since March 2020. The 2020 to 2021 Adult Social Care survey was voluntary, and only 18 councils participated. Therefore, this indicator was not updated for that year in the Profile.

Kent and Wokingham councils did not conduct a survey in 2019 to 2020. Trafford Council's 2019 to 2020 data was incomplete and only reflects service users with learning disabilities. As the responses are not from a fully representative subset, caution is advised when reviewing this data. Several other councils also had sample sizes under 100 for this question in 2019 to 2020, and these are flagged with a 'value note' in the tool.

Further data quality details are provided in the annual survey reports: Personal Social Services Adult Social Care Survey.

Data are unavailable for the Isles of Scilly for all years and for the City of London in 2019 to 2020, 2017 to 2018, 2015 to 2016, 2013 to 2014, 2012 to 2013, and 2010 to 2011. Slough Council did not conduct the survey in 2012 to 2013, and Richmond Council did not conduct it in 2010 to 2011. The age 65+ version of this indicator is only displayed from 2014 to 2015 onwards.

Percentages are rounded to one decimal place and numbers to the nearest five. Different base values (sample sizes) for each group mean some figures may be more uncertain than others. Group characteristics, such as age, may also affect figures. For example, the age profile of the White ethnic group may differ from others, impacting outcome values in ethnicity breakdowns.

There were several changes to national adult social care data collections in the 2014 to 2015 reporting year. The main change was replacing the Referrals, Assessments and Packages of Care (RAP) return with the Short and Long Term services (SALT) collection, altering the survey's target population. Key changes include:

Exclusion of users whose only services are equipment, professional support, or short-term residential care.
Inclusion of ‘Full cost clients’ who pay fully for services but are assessed and supported by the local authority.

These changes may affect comparability with data from previous years and between local authorities, though they may also improve consistency across councils.

The Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) series was established in 1995. Commissioned by the Scottish Government Health Directorates, the series provides regular information on aspects of the public's health and factors related to health which cannot be obtained from other sources. The SHeS series was designed to:

• estimate the prevalence of particular health conditions in Scotland;
• estimate the prevalence of certain risk factors associated with these health conditions and to document the pattern of related health behaviours;
• look at differences between regions and between subgroups of the population in the extent of their having these particular health conditions or risk factors, and to make comparisons with other national statistics for Scotland and England;
• monitor trends in the population's health over time;
• make a major contribution to monitoring progress towards health targets.

Each survey in the series includes a set of core questions and measurements (height and weight and, if applicable, blood pressure, waist circumference, urine and saliva samples), plus modules of questions on specific health conditions that vary from year to year. Each year the core sample has also been augmented by an additional boosted sample for children. Since 2008 NHS Health Boards have also had the opportunity to boost the number of adult interviews carried out in their area.

The Scottish Government Scottish Health Survey webpages contain further information about the series, including latest news and publications.

SHeS 2020: Telephone Survey

Fieldwork for the usual SHeS 2020 (the 16th face-to-face survey in the series) was suspended towards the end of March 2020 as the UK went into a nationwide lockdown at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision was taken to instead collect data for some of the key measures from SHeS via a telephone survey.

The specific aim of the SHeS 2020 telephone survey was to provide national level data on health, health conditions and the prevalence of certain risk factors associated with these health conditions for adults over a specified period of time during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was undertaken in order to capture data on key survey measures as quickly as possible and to add to the growing evidence base on public health during the pandemic. Of particular interest were the national indicators relevant to health including:

• Wellbeing
• Healthy weight
• Health risk behaviours
• Physical activity
• Food insecurity

The survey was intended to provide a snapshot of the health of Scotland's population, both physical and mental, during a short period within the COVID-19 pandemic. The questionnaire was shorter than the usual SHeS survey and, as such, the scope of the survey was broad rather than permitting a detailed focus on particular topic areas. In addition to interest in general health, long-term conditions and health risk behaviours, mental health (including social capital and loneliness) has also been a topic of particular interest throughout the pandemic and in turn, featured in the survey. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and related risk factors (smoking, poor diet, lack of physical activity, obesity and alcohol use) remained a key focus.