Experiencing Adult Social Care in Hackney

At the request of Adult Social Care at Hackney Council, Healthwatch Hackney carried out a mystery shopping exercise to better understand residents’ experiences of contacting Adult Social Care for support. Adult Social Care provided 20 scenarios and a checklist of service elements they wished to assess. This allowed them to track internal processes, align the exercise with current performance objectives and ensure that cases were tracked internally and not progressed beyond what was necessary for the exercise.

Mystery shoppers searched the web using key words of choice for their scenarios and explored the Adult Social Care section of the Hackney Council website, replicating how residents might search for information and support. This component of the exercise aimed to evaluate how easily shoppers could find relevant contact information, navigate to guidance specific to each scenario and find contact details for further support.  

Key findings

While most users were able to locate Adult Social Care contact details on the web with relative ease, navigating to scenario-specific information was more difficult. The quality and clarity of content played a significant role in whether mystery shoppers felt supported in understanding their next steps. Shoppers favoured information written in accessible language, clearly structured and addressing both general and specific needs. The increasing reliance on AI-generated answers also suggests that residents may be bypassing council websites altogether in favour of faster, more digestible summaries. It is therefore important to ensure content is optimised for search and accurately reflected in AI responses.

Mystery shopping of contact by phone highlighted that the staff’s attitude, willingness to help and consistency in upholding equality, diversity and inclusion principles provide a solid foundation on which to build an informed and person-centred support. To build on this foundation, there is a clear need for stronger training, clearer protocols and systems that empower rather than sideline residents.

Overall, while some call handlers following up online referrals provided clear and helpful explanations about what Adult Social Care could offer and what would happen next, inconsistent boundary setting and vague or absent follow-up information left many mystery shoppers uncertain about the process, undermining trust and making it harder for people to feel supported and in control of their own care journey.