Historic National Survey to Include Care Experience Questions for the First Time
published on 18 May 2026
PRESS RELEASE 18/05/2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Historic National Survey to Include Care Experience Questions for the First Time
Today marks a major milestone for Care Experienced people as the new Community and Engagement Survey launches with questions on Care Experience included within a national government survey for the first time.
The survey will collect responses from around 191,500 people across the country and examine issues including belonging, loneliness, community connection, civic engagement and wellbeing.
For the first time, government departments and public bodies will be able to see whether Care Experienced people experience these outcomes differently from the wider population.
The survey includes questions asking whether someone spent time in care before the age of 18 and whether they identify as a care leaver. These questions were developed following engagement work with Care Experienced people and practitioners, including focus groups and consultation work contributed to by Terry Galloway.
The significance of the data is substantial.
Until now, public bodies have largely been unable to measure how policies affect Care Experienced people because the group has not been identified within mainstream national datasets.
This survey changes that.
For example, current national data shows:
• 62% of adults feel they strongly belong to their neighbourhood
• 7% report feeling lonely often or always
• 73% are satisfied with their local area as a place to live
• 13% are involved in civic or social action
By including Care Experience within the survey, public bodies will now be able to understand whether Care Experienced people experience these outcomes differently and whether policies are improving or worsening those figures over time.
This creates, for the first time, the ability to measure whether interventions designed to improve belonging, reduce loneliness, strengthen communities or increase participation are actually working for Care Experienced people.
The work also supports the emerging Corporate Parenting responsibilities being introduced across government departments through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
Further discussions are ongoing with other government departments regarding the future inclusion of Care Experience within wider national data collection and policy development.
Terry Galloway, Care Leaver Champion and Campaigner said:
“For years, Care Experienced people have been invisible within national data, despite experiencing some of the worst outcomes in society, including significantly reduced life expectancy and disproportionately high mortality rates.
If another group in society was experiencing these outcomes at the same scale, there would quite rightly be national outrage and urgent action.
This survey is important because it allows public bodies to finally measure whether policies are improving people’s lives or whether Care Experienced people are still being left behind.
We cannot design effective services using assumption alone. Data creates visibility, accountability and evidence for change.
This work is also deeply personal to me. I lost both my brother and sister, Hazel and James, who were Care Experienced. Hazel and I made a promise that we would fight to change the system so others would not go through what we did.
Alongside the campaign to make Care Experience a Protected Characteristic, I am now working department by department across government to encourage the inclusion of Care Experience within Equality Monitoring data. If the new Corporate Parenting legislation is going to succeed, government departments must be able to measure outcomes, identify inequality and assess whether their policies are improving the lives of Care Experienced people.
Most importantly, this is about voice. Care Experienced people should not only be seen within policy, they should be heard within the evidence that shapes decisions. For too long, people have spoken about Care Experienced people without properly listening to them or measuring their experiences. This begins to change that.”