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Publication - Statistics

Care Home Data Review: questionnaire response data

Published
15 May 2024
Directorate
Population Health Directorate, +1 more … Social Care and National Care Service Development
Topic
Health and social care

Respondent data from the Care Home Data Review questionnaire.

Data Users

Types of data used

This chart shows the Care Home figures or statistics that data users used. It shows the percentage of respondents and the raw number of responses next to each row. The results are as follows: Residents – Number and Care Home Capacity 25 responses, Staff – Number and availability / WTE 19 responses, Covid related data 18 responses, Residents – Characteristics and Needs 17 responses, Service quality 16 responses, Service availability 12 responses, Residents – other 12 responses, Staff – Training, Qualifications and Roles 9 responses and Other 5 responses.

Among questionnaire respondents:

  •  data on number of care home residents and care home capacity were the most widely used, followed by data on the number and availability of staff
  •  the type of data used will reflect the type of organisation responding to the questionnaire. However, most categories were used by at least 30% of survey respondents, indicating a reasonable coverage of data users to provide feedback on a range of care home data products

Data Formats

This chart shows the formats that respondents currently accessed data in. It shows the percentage of respondents and the raw number of responses next to each row. The results are as follows: Statistical reports 19, Dashboard / Drill down reports 19, Downloadable Spreadsheets 18, Executive summary reports 8, Open data formats 5.

This chart shows the formats that respondents would like to access data in. It shows the percentage of respondents and the raw number of responses next to each row. The results are as follows: Downloadable Spreadsheets 21, Dashboard /Drill down reports 19, Statistical reports 14, Executive summary reports 10, Open data formats 6, Other 1.

  •   the most common formats for accessing data are through statistical reports, dashboards and / or downloadable spreadsheets
  •   a slightly higher number of respondents would like to access data through downloadable spreadsheets than currently do so. Conversely, a lower number would like to access data through statistical reports
  •   the spread of responses (and low percentage of respondents choosing any one option) suggests that data producers should use a range of formats, as it is unlikely that any one format can meet the needs of all stakeholders

Use of data

This chart shows the general reasons that the respondents used the Care Home Data for. It shows the percentage of respondents and the raw number of responses next to each row. The results are as follows Monitoring and Evaluation 15, Operational / Clinical Needs 15, Research and Analysis 13, National Reporting 13, Service Planning and Delivery 12, Policy Development 11, Workforce Planning 10, Regulatory and Assurance Work 10, Quality and Safety 8, Benchmarking 7, Other 4.

Data uses will reflect the type of organisation responding to the questionnaire. Of respondents:

  •   50% used data for monitoring and evaluation and operational / clinical needs
  •   43% used data for research & analysis and national reporting
  •   other relatively frequent uses include; service and workforce planning, policy development and regulatory work

Do publications meet needs

This chart shows the respondents ranking of whether publications and associated datasets met the respondents needs. The percentage of respondents is shown for each of the 4 categories (Not at all, Only Partially, Mostly and Fully). The chart excludes any cases in which the output had less than 10 responses.

For a list publications and datasets, we asked respondents to rate the usefulness of each. The chart includes only those publications with over 10 responses. It can be seen:

  •  the Care Inspectorate Data Store and SSSC Workforce publication mostly meet respondent’s needs with a majority saying their needs were either “mostly” or “fully” met
  •  for other publications, whilst a high percentage of respondents' needs were mostly or fully met, the majority of respondents said their needs were only partially met
  •  in a small number of cases respondents said their needs were not met at all

Issues experienced by data users

This chart shows issues with the data respondents use (if they have any). It shows the percentage of respondents and the raw number of responses next to each row. The results are as follows: Quality/Completeness of existing data 23 responses, Inconsistent definitions, classifications and code 20 responses, Ease of finding/accessing data 18 responses, Timeliness/frequency of data release 16 responses, Type and range of data available 13 responses, Difficult to understand what data is telling us 9 responses, Other 1 responses, No current issues 0 responses.

When asked to choose from a range of potential options, the main issues identified by respondents were:

  •  quality/completeness of existing data (79%)
  •  inconsistent definitions, classifications and codes (69%)
  •  ease of finding/accessing data (62%)

Using free text options, respondents noted that issues on quality related to:

  •  low completion rates for some variables, impacting robustness and usefulness
  •  data coverage not always meeting needs - “it needs to work for care home providers as well as policy makers”
  •  data out of data by time of publication
  •  data gaps
  •  lack of consistent definitions limiting comparability
 

Ease of finding and accessing data

This chart shows the ease of accessing and interpreting care home data. The light blue columns display responses on how easy it was to access the data. The dark blue columns display responses on how easy it was to interpret the Care Home data once accessed.

Respondents were asked specifically about their experiences of finding and accessing data:

  •  just under half (47%) of respondents found it at least moderately difficult to access care home data
  •  however, once accessed, the majority (62%) of respondents found it moderately or very easy to interpret care home data 

“If data is available, it’s pretty easy to work with”

Respondents had the opportunity to give extended free text comments relating to issues accessing and interpreting data.

On finding data, the comments related mainly to:

  •  difficulty of navigating the range of organisations publishing data
  •  understanding what data are available

On interpreting data, the comments related mainly to:

  •  lack of background information, methodology or guidance, making interpretation difficult
  •  multiple sources providing data on the same topics (data overlap)
  •  the need for more commentary, context and explanations about data

“I find the whole data landscape confusing - there are so many bodies publishing information. I wish there was a 'one stop shop' for data, with links to the various sources and an easy guide of what to find where”

Level and frequency of data

This chart shows the geographic data that respondents needed. This is broken down by: LA/HSCP, Care Home, National(Scotland), Health Board, Individual and other.

This chart shows the frequencies of data that respondents needed. This is broken down by: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly and Annual.

The level and frequency of data required is dependent on the purpose for which the data are needed:  

  •  the most common level of data required was at LA/HSCP level (80%) followed by Care Home level (77%). This is unsurprising given that HSCPs and Care Homes were the largest group providing responses
  •  having data available on an annual (55%) or monthly (52%) basis was the most common requirement. However, there was also large demand for more frequent data, with 45% of respondents requiring weekly and 24% requiring daily data
 

Dataset linkages

This chart shows the respondents thoughts on Care Home Data linkages. The responses available were Yes, No, Don’t Know.

Respondents were asked about opportunities for data linkage:

  •  67% of data users said that, where appropriate, they would like to see care home data linked to other datasets, with the remaining 33% saying ‘Don’t know’
  •  The most common linkages requested related to linking with health data, with the majority of free text responses mentioning data on health or care needs in some way. Examples include: residents' dependencies and health & care needs and prescribing and medications data

Contact

Email: SWStat@gov.scot

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