Recruitment and retention

This tracker shows Skills for Care’s estimate of starter, turnover and vacancy rates in adult social care over time using data from the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS). 

  • Published: 15 September 2025 
  • Last updated: 15 September 2025 
  • Next update due: 15 October 2025 

This tracker is updated monthly but will be paused in April and May to allow for increased data collection at the start of the new reporting period (01 April to 31 March). 

Explore the data  

Use the visualisation to see annual workforce estimates, shown in blue, and monthly changes, shown in purple. As workforce estimates, the annual figures represent the whole adult social care sector, while monthly changes use unweighted data from the ASC-WDS. As such, monthly information should not be compared to our regular annual reports as they will only reflect the characteristics of those ASC-WDS locations that have recently updated their information. 

The information (i) button provides useful notes about the data, while the Download PowerPoint button lets you save a screenshot of the visualisation for use in your own presentations. Each tab also includes a glossary for reference.

Beneath the visualisation, you’ll find links to download the full dataset and learn more about our methodology.

Learn more about adult social care

Methodology for creating workforce estimates

How the Workforce Intelligence team estimates the size, structure and characteristics of the adult social care workforce in England.  

Data downloads 

Explore the data behind the reports and data visualisations by downloading one of our data files. These use our workforce estimates to look at all variables and are split by geography, sector, service and job role. 

The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England 

Annual report and data, providing a national picture of the adult social care workforce in England, including trends in recruitment, diversity and pay.  

The size and structure of the adult social care sector and workforce in England 

Information on the size and composition of employers and the workforce, including filled posts by sector, service and job role.  

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