Our ‘Data Drives Change’ spotlight highlights the powerful role data plays in increasing understanding of social care and shaping decisions for the sector.
In October, we’re focusing on how data drives change in social care. We’ll be sharing information and real-life examples of how data is being used across social care, the influence it has on social care policy, and how you can use data to support business planning, people management and decision making in your organisation.
Skills for Care’s data plays a key role in decision making across the social care sector, helping organisations, the Government, and other stakeholders understand the workforce and inform policy making.
Recently, this data has helped track the uptake of the Care Workforce Pathway, delegated healthcare activities and digital roles in adult social care. It’s also been used to assess the impact of changes to the National Living Wage and to understand who is using the Health and Care Worker visa.
The data comes from information shared by over 21,000 social care organisations using the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS). By using this service, you help to shape social care policy.
Employers can use the data to support workforce planning, training, recruitment and retention. It can also help you understand how your organisation compares locally on things like pay, sickness rates and qualifications.
Support for data drives change
Discover helpful resources to learn more about data:
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Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS)
A free online service that helps manage staff and training records, track key workforce data, and benchmark against similar organisations. The data also supports Government, the Department of Health and Social Care, local authorities and the Care Quality Commission in planning, funding and monitoring the social care sector.
Learn more about ASC-WDS
Workforce intelligence
On our recently updated workforce intelligence website, you’ll find lots of information, reports and data about the social care sector and workforce. This includes insights about recruitment and retention, pay, qualifications, workforce demographics and much more. You can find information broken down nationally, regionally and more locally, including at integrated care board and local authority level.
Explore our workforce intelligence
Workforce planning support
Our workforce planning resources can support with recruitment and retention, by using an analyse-plan-do-review model. Using trusted and accredited workforce data and insights is an important element of the ‘analyse’ element of the model. Adult social care commissioners and those with responsibility for workforce planning within integrated care systems can use Skills for Care’s national and local data reports and visualisations as part of developing workforce plans in their area.
Learn more about workforce planning
Launch event: The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England 2025
Watch the launch of our flagship report providing insights on the adult social care workforce. We’ll share a comprehensive analysis of the adult social care workforce in England and the characteristics of the people working in it. We explored key sector trends, including recruitment and retention, workforce demographics, pay and much more.
ASC-WDS Benefits Bundle
Having an ASC-WDS account offers more than just data management. It gives access to the Benefits Bundle, including discounts on Skills for Care products like CQC seminars and eLearning. Keeping your account up to date also unlocks training funding through the Learning and Development Support Scheme (LDSS), with a built-in eligibility checker to guide you.
Explore the benefits