As people grow older, many will find themselves in a situation where they need a little more support to complete everyday tasks, such as washing, dressing or going to the toilet. Being able to easily access high-quality and timely information and advice about adult social care services as early as possible is vital to maintaining dignity and independence for many people in later life.

However, evidence from our Helpline and specialist advice service shows that many older people, and the families who support them, are not receiving the information and advice they need from local authorities. Our research sought to explore these experiences in more detail, by gathering insights from the stories of older people and their families, hearing from professionals delivering information and advice about social care, and carrying out nationally representative polling.

Based on the experiences we heard about, our new briefing identifies approaches local authorities can take to ensure that they are delivering information and advice about adult social care that is effective for everyone who might need it. We recognise, though, that the pressures local authorities are facing can limit the work they can do to help people, so we also make recommendations for how the UK government must support local authorities and take action to ensure older people have a voice in decisions that are made about social care policy.