Dear Ed,

Request for an assessment of ‘Filled posts in the adult social care workforce in England: monthly statistics’

I am writing on behalf of Skills for Care to request an assessment of our Filled posts in the adult social care workforce in England: monthly statistics publication.

These statistics provide timely insights into the size of the adult social care sector in England and are derived from data collected through the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS). ASC-WDS contains workforce information submitted directly by adult social care employers and has been developed over many years in partnership with the sector to provide high-quality evidence for workforce planning, policy development and operational decision-making.

During the past two years, we have made a series of improvements to the way these statistics are produced and checked. Our production methods now make use of reproducible analytical pipelines and GitHub version control, supported by enhanced validation and modelling. Together, these changes provide a more robust and transparent process that reflects the principles of the Code of Practice for Statistics.

We have also engaged with users to understand how they use the statistics and where improvements could be made. Their feedback has helped shape the ongoing development of the publication and its supporting materials.

We believe that these monthly statistics make a valuable contribution to the evidence base for adult social care in England. They provide regular and timely information on workforce trends in a sector that is essential to the health and wellbeing of millions of people and which continues to be a key area of public and policy interest.

In accordance with Section 12(1) of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, we would welcome a full assessment of these statistics. We see this assessment as an important milestone in the continued development of adult social care workforce statistics and as the first step towards establishing a sustainable and trusted set of monthly official statistics for the adult social care workforce in England.

We would be pleased to work closely with the OSR assessment team and provide any information required to support the process.

Yours sincerely,

Oonagh Smyth CBE
Chief Executive Officer
Skills for Care