"Not as simple as right or wrong": A themed report on social care and support for disabled people in the UK

For disabled people to have fair social care and support, we need to understand disabled people’s experiences of these services. In this project, we studied the lived experiences of disabled people in the UK when they used social care and support. We wrote a report based on a catalogue of articles, books and reports that were published between 2010 and 2021. For this catalogue, we selected hundred and thirty-two articles, books and reports for our report. We found three main themes which were “Experience of social care and support”, “Experience of access to social care” and “Experience of care relationships”. The theme of “Experience of social care and support” describes how disabled people have different experiences of social care and support. Many disabled people want to be independent, enjoy meeting people for activities and manage their own finances. The next theme was “Experience of access to social care” and this theme talks about how it is difficult for disabled people to get information, especially when their circumstances change. This information is also difficult to find because it can come from many sources, such as healthcare professionals, carers and the internet. This theme also found that disabled people like help when they make important decisions. The theme of “Experience of care relationships” describes how disabled people find it even more difficult to have social care and support when they do not speak English as a first language. This theme also considers how many disabled people build meaningful relationships with personal assistants and other disabled people in support groups. These relationships help disabled people deal with what they feel when they are treated badly in everyday life. Overall, social care and support is more than just meeting health needs, but helping disabled people to build meaningful lives.