Adult social care workforce statistics released by NHS Digital today

7 Feb 2018 03:39 PM

NHS Digital has today published the latest information on the number of adult social care staff who work for local authorities in England.

This report covers the 109,300 workers employed by local authorities in adult social care services - accounting for approximately 7 per cent of the total adult social care workforce in England.

Personal Social Services, Staff of Social Services Departments, England 2017 contains information about the number of staff working in adult social care for local authorities as at September 2017.

The publication also includes figures detailing the size and structure of the adult social care workforce employed by local authorities since 2011.

Further details include demographic information such as the age, gender and ethnicity of the workforce, as well as details of average annual salaries by staff groups, the number of workers on zero hours contracts and the average number of sick days taken per year, compared with the independent sector and the overall workforce in England.

Read the full report

Personal Social Services, Staff of Social Services Departments in England

Data is also provided by region and local authority via the Adult Social Care Analytical Hub

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Notes to editors

  1. NHS Digital is the national information and technology partner of the health and care system. Our team of information analysis, technology and project management experts create, deliver and manage the crucial digital systems, services, products and standards upon which health and care professionals depend. During the 2016/17 financial year, NHS Digital published 292 statistical reports. Our vision is to harness the power of information and technology to make health and care better.
  2. This report contains information on staff employed (directly and indirectly) by local authority adult social services departments in England who provide adult social care services to members of the public. It does not cover staff who work in children's social services departments or those employed in the independent sector. The Skills for Care publications cover the whole sector, not just local authorities.
  3. The National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC) is managed by Skills for Care on behalf of the Department of Health and has been collecting information about social care providers and their staff since early 2006.
  4. Following an open National Statistics consultation, it was decided that the NMDS-SC would replace the Personal Social Services Staff of Social Services Departments' return SSDS001 from September 2011 as the adult workforce data return for local authorities. The data in this report is therefore not directly comparable with SSDS001 and so comparisons are not made to data prior to 2011 in this report. For more information regarding this, see the Data Quality report that accompanies this publication.
  5. For media enquiries, please contact media@nhsdigital.nhs.net or telephone 0300 303 3888.