Redcar and Cleveland Adult Social Care Letters

Redcar and Cleveland Council commissioned Healthwatch to evaluate their Adult Social Care Services. They looked at the letters sent to people who use Adult Social Care, for the purposes of the report they spoke to groups of people and completed an online survey.  30 responses were completed over a 2 month period.

Most people found the information difficult to understand. Information needs to be clear, simple and jargon free, with short sentences and paragraphs. 

Important information needs to be given at the start of letters. It should be clear and either highlighted or in bold. Particularly, appointment information, contact details, what actions to take, and what happens next, contrasting fonts and colours would also be useful for some people. 

There needs to be different formats available, such as BSL or easy-read; for easy-read communication, there needs to be less writing and more pictures that are relevant to the message. 

Respondents from both focus groups often need support to understand information or have things explained to them. If they do not have support, letters will be ignored. Some people who receive letters become extremely anxious when they receive information from official bodies and as such, they do not open this information. 

People would like to be asked how they prefer to communicate: respondents from Independent Voices prefer a phone call, those from the recovery group and the majority of those who completed the survey would prefer face-to-face contact. Some respondents noted they would prefer text message reminders; this would mean they were able to engage with appointments and actions better than they do currently.