How commissioners can use our latest sector and workforce data

We look at what information commissioners will find most useful from our newly-published ‘State of the adult social care sector and workforce in England’ report, as well as our other workforce intelligence.

This month Skills for Care published its updated ‘State of the adult social care sector and workforce in England’ report.

The report gives a comprehensive insight into the current social care landscape – looking at issues including recruitment and retention, care demand, skills and qualifications, workforce projections, and more. It’s an incredibly useful tool for people working all across social care, including those commissioning care.

Sharon Graham, Head of Service Commissioning, Barnsley Council, has told us how useful her team finds the report, saying:

''As commissioners we frequently use the data set to support the development of our market position statement, market shaping plans and other reports to senior leaders. The data set is extremely informative but is also visually pleasing, easy to navigate and simple to understand.''    

We look in more detail at how you can use this report and our other data to gain useful insights as a commissioner.

Assessing care demand and resources

The Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) which you will be doing as part of your planning identifies the current and future health and wellbeing needs of a local population.

Demographic data, population forecasts, and prevalence rates of conditions (like dementia or learning disabilities) can help to predict future demand over 5, 10, and 20 years. In chapter four of our latest report you can find information about workforce demographics, forecasts and an analysis of data by different care needs.

Additionally, information about the size and structure of the sector and workforce (filled posts, vacancy rates, organisations) which is included in the report can be combined with local authority data to monitor the demand for care in an area and the supply available. 

Using workforce data as part of workforce planning processes can help commissioners to understand local challenges. For example, if you see that a workforce group are approaching retirement age, as commissioners you may choose to invest time and resources into that area. This also helps with your market sustainability and shaping responsibilities, which needs to be based on local evidence.

Financial planning

The Pay chapter (5) in the report contains information on the hourly pay rates and annual salaries of the adult social care workforce. It can be combined with other population projection data to help commissioners as part of their financial planning and decision making when determining commissioned rates for services.  

Ensuring quality

Using data for workforce planning helps commissioners and local authorities to ensure you’re meeting your responsibilities under Section 5 of the Care Act 2014. 

Data and intelligence can help local authorities to meet their requirement to aim for a market that ensures people have a variety of high-quality providers and services to choose from. 

Commissioners also have a legal duty to ensure the local care market is diverse, high-quality, and sustainable. The data provided by Skills for Care can help you with different stages of the market shaping process:  

Fair cost of care exercise – Determining the true economic cost of delivering care. This data is used to set realistic and sustainable commissioned rates, preventing providers from going out of business. 

Capacity mapping - Tracking the number of available care home beds and home care slots by geography. This data helps identify sufficiency risks—areas where provision is critically low—and informs decisions about where to invest in market growth. 

Workforce recruitment and retention analysis - Using the annual and monthly tracking information to analyse and monitor local data on care worker recruitment and retention rates. High turnover data signals market instability and is a prompt for commissioning support, such as offering grants for training or recruitment campaigns.

Findings included in the latest Skills for Care report can help commissioners to commission services based on evidence of what works well.

For example, the ‘Factors affecting staff turnovers rates’ (9.1) section can help commissioners to understand workforce characteristics that relate to workers’ propensity to leave their roles. This can help them to commission services that are more likely to have a sustainable workforce. This can lead to better services being provided for people drawing on services.  

Many commissioners are now including a requirement to complete the ASC-WDS as part of their contracts with commissioned services. Ensuring more adult social care providers share their data with the service creates better insights leading to improved commissioning and quality of care across the sector.   

Further data for commissioners

Skills for Care produces other reports and data visualisations that can be of use to commissioners. The monthly trackers can help you to monitor the sector with more regularly updated data on filled posts, recruitment and retention. The trackers can be a useful additional ‘early warning’ tool for commissioners looking to monitor instability in the adult social care sector in your area. Data is also provided at a regional and local level, including by integrated care board area, meaning commissioners can get reliable insights at a more granular level.  

View our full ‘State of the adult social care sector and workforce in England’ report.

Learn more about the importance of data in social care with our #DataDrivesChange spotlight.

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