Frequently asked questions - Have Your Say survey

We carry out this survey so that we can understand what people think about working in social care and monitor trends over time.

The findings help shape the support we and our partners offer, as well as highlighting important issues to Welsh Government.

We ask questions about things like your health, well-being, pay and conditions.

We want to find out more about what people like about working in social care in Wales and where more support is needed.

The survey is being carried out by an independent team of researchers at Cardiff University’s Centre for Adult Social Care Research and Social Science Research Park.

We want people from all age groups, backgrounds and social care roles to take part in this survey.

Your views will be important in giving us a good understanding of what things are like for people working in social care in Wales today.

Telling us what you think will help shape the support we and our partners offer.

Your answers will be used for research that benefits social care and to produce workforce statistics. They won’t be used to identify you.

• This survey is anonymous and voluntary.
• You don't need to provide your name or any personal identifiers.
• You can skip questions you don't want to answer.
• Your personal responses are confidential - they will never be shared with employers, agencies, or authorities such as immigration, social security or tax authorities.

If you choose to provide your email address at the end of the survey to take part in the prize draw, these details will be stored separately from your survey answers.

You can also choose to share your personal data for the purposes of linked data research at the end of the survey. This will allow Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) to give your Have Your Say survey responses a unique anonymous code. Once this code has been assigned, your personal details will be removed from your survey responses.

Your data could then be made available for linked data research within the SAIL databank at Swansea University. This means that approved researchers would be able to link your anonymised responses to the Have Your Say survey with other anonymised data held about you, such as data related to your health, housing or income. Linking data in this way will help researchers to understand the needs of the social care workforce in more detail.

Sharing your personal details for the competition or for linked data research is optional. You don't have to provide any personal information.

Cardiff University School of Sciences Research Ethics Committee has given the project ethical approval.

The data collected will be held securely in an encrypted folder. Anonymised data will be given to us and deposited in our data portal and the UK Data Archive when the work is complete.

The study complies with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Social Care Wales is the data controller, and Cardiff University is the data processor.

The final report will be published on our website. This won’t include your name or contact details, and no individual will be identifiable.

No - taking part in the survey is voluntary.

But we’d encourage you to respond to as many of the questions as you feel comfortable with.

The more complete the information we collect, the more useful it is when the results are analysed and when we respond to the findings.

We recently announced the results of our 2025 survey, which found that the well-being of social care workers has improved, but anxiety remains high.

We've also used the findings of the previous surveys to create briefings that summarise and highlight key information about the social care workforce in Wales.

Visit our Insight Collective website to find out more about improving terms and conditions for the social care workforce in Wales, and supporting the well-being of social care workers in Wales.