Glossary

General terminology

These are some of the general terms we use to describe aspects of adult social care.

• ‘Domiciliary care’ is used to describe ‘home care’, to avoid any confusion or inadvertent word reversal with ‘care home’
• ‘Local authority’ is used to refer to councils’ adult social services departments
• ‘The independent sector’ is calculated as the sum of the private and the voluntary (third) sectors in adult social are.
• ‘Direct payment recipients sector’ is used to describe those workers (personal assistants) employed by individuals who receive a direct payment from their local authority to fund their own care and support.

Organisations and establishments

We distinguish between organisations, establishments and employers: 

• Organisation, either a local authority, a charity or voluntary body, or a private company that is providing adult social care services. An organisation may provide care at a single establishment (location) or may have several establishments where this happens; for example, a chain of care homes would be classed a single organisation. 

• Establishment, a single location where care is provided. This may be a care home, or head office for a domiciliary care service.

Main service type 

The ASC-WDS collects information on 35 types of care services. Our visualisations and data downloads look at three services specifically: 

• CQC Care home with nursing 

• CQC Care only home 

• CQC Non-residential 

For other analysis we aggregate the 35 care services into four groups. Selected main care services within each group are:  

• ‘Residential’, including care homes with nursing and care homes without nursing.  

• ‘Day care services’ 

• ‘Domiciliary care’, including supported living and extra care housing.  

• ‘Community care’, including community support and outreach, social work and care management, carers’ support, occupational or employment-related services, and other adult community care services.  

Job roles and job role groups 

The ASC-WDS collects information on 37 job roles, which are categorised into four groups for the purposes of analysis. The main roles within each job role group are as follows: 

• Managers, including senior, middle and first-line managers, registered managers, deputy managers, team leaders, supervisors, managers and ‘staff in care-related but not care providing roles’. 

• Regulated professions, including social workers, occupational therapists, registered nurses, allied health professionals, ‘safeguarding and reviewing officers’ and nursing associates. 

• Direct care, including senior care workers, care workers, community support and outreach workers, support workers and other care providing job roles.

• Other roles, including administrative or office staff who are not providing care, ancillary staff who are not providing care, activities worker or co-ordinators, care co-ordinators, learning and development leads, assessment officers, IT and data roles, and other job roles which are not care-providing. 

Workforce characteristics variables within the ASC-WDS 

Explore key variables that are collected in the ASC-WDS about each establishment and the staff working there. This allows us to define and describe the adult social care sector and its workforce. Variables are divided into the sections of ‘The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England’ report where analysis of each of these is shown.  

Size and structure 

• Filled posts, this refers to any post (or job) employed by an adult social care organisation. A person may have more than one job, therefore the number of filled posts can be higher than the number of people working in the sector. 

• Full-time equivalent (FTE) filled posts, this refers to the number of filled posts taking into account the number of hours worked by an individual. One FTE filled post is equivalent to working 37 hours a week. 

• Total posts, this refers to the total number of posts in the workforce. This is the sum of filled posts (filled by a person) and vacant posts (posts waiting to be filled). 

• Vacant posts, are the number of posts at an establishment that are not currently filled by a person and are being actively recruited to. This may be to replace a leaver, or to expand the workforce. 

The Care Workforce Pathway for adult social care - developed by Skills for Care in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) - outlines the knowledge, skills, values and behaviours needed for a career in adult social care and provides a clear career structure for staff. The pathway is intended to support employers to set out opportunities for staff development and career progression. Since June 2025 we have collected CWP information about:

• Awareness of the Care Workforce Pathway
• Utilisation of the Care Workforce Pathway, this refers to whether the establishment uses the Pathway and the reason for using it.
• Care Workforce Pathway role categories, this refers to the role categories as defined by the Pathway. These are separate and distinct to the job roles recorded in staff records in the ASC-WDS though there are many overlapping characteristics and responsibilities. New role categories continue to be developed and are then added to the ASC-WDS.

Employment overview

• Employees, this refers to those workers who are classed as directly employed, that is employed on a permanent or temporary contract. Those workers employed via agency, bank or pool, or other contract types are classed as indirectly employed and therefore are not included as employees. 

• Employment status, refers to the contract type of an individual worker. Employers are asked to select one of the following contract types for each worker: permanent, temporary, agency staff, bank/pool staff or ‘other’ contract type. 

• Hours worked, this refers to the hours worked by an individual worker (either as contracted or average hours). Hours can be linked to contract type, so we ask this question in different ways to account for this. 

• Zero-hours contracts, some staff in adult social care are employed on a zero-hours contract. The ASC-WDS asks a separate question about this contract type, it is distinct from a worker’s employment status. For example, a member of staff can be employed permanently and have a zero-hours contract. 

• Delegated Healthcare Activities (DHAs), this refers to whether or not non-regulated staff (such as senior care worker or care workers) at the establishment carry out healthcare activities delegated by regulated staff (such as registered nurses or occupational therapists).
• Enhanced care worker workplace pension, this refers to whether or not the establishment contributes more than the minimum 3% into their care workers’ workplace pensions.
• Enhanced care worker sick pay, this refers to whether or not the establishment pays more than the statutory rate of sick pay to their care workers if they cannot work due to illness.
• Care worker annual leave, this refers to how many days of annual leave the establishment give their care workers.

Recruitment and retention 

• Experience in sector and role, this refers to the number of years a person has been working in their current role, or the adult social care sector overall. 

• Leavers and turnover rate, this is the rate of leavers in the last 12 months within adult social care. The turnover rate is calculated at establishment level by dividing the number of leavers in the last 12 months by the number of directly employed staff. 

• Sickness, this refers to the number of sickness days taken by a worker in the last 12 months. No further information is asked, including reason for sickness. Staff can be flagged in the ASC-WDS as being on maternity leave by their employer, to distinguish this from sickness. 

• Source of recruitment, this refers to the sector where the worker was previously employed. 

• Starters rate, this is the rate of new starters in the last 12 months within the adult social care sector. The starters rate is calculated at establishment level by dividing the number of the starters in the last 12 months by the number of directly employed staff. 

• Vacancy rate, this is the rate of vacant posts within adult social care. The vacancy rate is calculated by dividing vacant posts by the sum of directly employed staff and vacant posts. 

Demographics 

All variables in the ASC-WDS are completed by the employer on behalf of their staff. It should be noted that responses may differ if the worker entered their own information. 

• Age, this refers to the age of the worker and is calculated from their date of birth. 

• Country of birth, this refers to the country where the worker was born. There are 194 options within the ASC-WDS which are then grouped into 3 categories: ‘born in the UK’, ‘born in an EU country’ and ‘born in a non-EU country’. 

• Disability, this refers to a worker’s disability status. Options available to answer this question are ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘not disclosed’. 

• Ethnicity, this refers to a worker’s ethnicity. There are 18 options to choose from in the ASC-WDS which are then grouped into 5 categories: 
  • White ethnicities
  • Mixed or multiple ethnicities
  • Asian or Asian British ethnicities
  • Black, African, Caribbean or Black British ethnicities
  • Other ethnicities

• Gender, this refers to the gender identity of the worker. Options available to answer this question are ‘female, ‘male’ and ‘other’. 

• Nationality, this refers to the nationality of a worker. There are 194 options within the ASC-WDS which are then grouped into 3 categories: British, EU and Non-EU. 

Pay

• Full-time equivalent (FTE) annual pay, refers to a worker’s full-time equivalent annual salary. This can be directly entered by the employer or calculated from the worker’s hourly pay rate based on a 37-hour week. 

• Hourly pay, refers to a worker’s hourly rate of pay. This can be directly entered into the ASC-WDS by an employer or calculated by dividing the worker’s salary by their contracted hours. 

• Nominal pay, refers to trended information that shows actual pay rates as they were at the time. There has been no adjustment made for inflation. 

• Real term pay, refers to trended information that shows adjusted pay rates, taking inflation into account. 

Qualifications 

• Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate, this refers to the Adult Social Care Certificate qualification that launched in June 2024. This is different to the Care Certificate standards, which are an induction training programme.  

• Care Certificate standards, this refers to the induction programme for workers in direct care roles known as the ‘Care Certificate standards’. This training programme includes 15 minimum standards that should be completed before a worker can have their Care Certificate standards status recorded as ‘completed’ in the ASC-WDS.   
• Relevant adult social care qualification, this refers to any qualification that has been flagged by the employer as relevant to adult social care.  

Training

In the ASC-WDS, employers can record training data as well as  accredited qualifications. Adding training records to the ASC-WDS is not part of the mandatory criteria for employers and not part of any funding criteria. Completion of the training records on the ASC-WDS is based on users seeing the benefits for their own organisation and so it’s not fully competed by all.  

• Statutory training, training required by law for all workers in the adult social care sector. These include ‘health and safety awareness’, ‘fire safety’, ‘moving and handling objects’, ‘infection prevention and control’, ‘adult safeguarding’, and ‘learning disability and autism awareness’ (including Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training).

• Mandatory training, training can be mandatory for a worker to complete at a particular establishment. Mandatory training is determined by the employer and varies on each location and job role.

There are 47 training category options in the ASC-WDS, shown here in six groups:

• Care skills and knowledge, including ‘Activity provision, wellbeing’, ‘Assisting and moving people’, ‘Continence Care’, ‘Control and restraint’, ‘Dignity, respect, person-centred care’, ‘Duty of care’, ‘Equality and diversity’, ‘Medication management’, ‘Mental capacity and liberty safeguards’, ‘Nutrition and hydration’, ‘Oral health’, ‘Palliative, end of life care’, ‘Personal care’ and ‘Positive behaviour support and non-restrictive practice’.

• Health and safety in the workplace, including ‘Basic life support and first aid’, ‘COSHH’, ‘Emergency Aid awareness’ and ‘Food hygiene’.

• IT, digital and data in the workplace technology, including ‘Assisted digital and accessibility’, ‘Data management and GDPR’, ‘Digital leadership skills’, ‘In-house systems and applications’, ‘Online safety and security’, ‘Social media and communications’ and ‘Working with digital technology’.

• Specific conditions and disabilities, including ‘Dementia care’, ‘Diabetes’, ‘Epilepsy’, ‘Mental health’, ‘Physical Disability’, ‘Sensory disability’ and ‘Stroke’.

• Staff development including ‘Children's, young people's related training’, ‘Communication’, ‘Complaints handling, conflict resolution’, ‘Leadership and management’ and ‘Supervision, performance management’. 

• Any other not in the above categories.

International recruitment 

Our definition includes those internationally recruited workers employed on the Health and Care Worker visa and those who arrived via other routes, such as a student or as a dependent on a family member’s visa.

In our analysis we define a newly internationally recruited worker as:

• a person with a non-British nationality
• who arrived in the UK in a given calendar year
• once arrived in the UK, the person started a direct care role in adult social care in the 
• reporting year, e.g. in 2022/23 they arrived between 01 April 2022 and 31 March 2023
• the role was employed in the independent sector.