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Guidance

Adult social care in England statistics: background quality and methodology (August 2022 to December 2025)

How the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) puts together the statistics in its monthly reports.

Updates to this page

From:
Department of Health and Social Care
Published:
1 September 2022
Last updated:
15 January 2026
Show all updates

  1. Added a link to the new quarterly releases that have replaced the monthly release. The monthly statistics for adult social care (England) background quality and methodology will no longer be updated.

  2. Updated to reflect the addition of statistics on the number of people receiving CQC regulated domiciliary care and flu vaccination uptake for the 2025 to 2026 campaign.

  3. Updated to reflect addition of data collection guidance and information following the latest client level data submission.

  4. Updated to include further information on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) registration data in Capacity Tracker.

  5. Updated to reflect the addition of statistics on the number of care home residents, and additional statistics derived from CLD on the numbers of people receiving adult social care assessments who have not received local authority social care support in the previous 12 months, per 100,000 people.

  6. Updated to reflect the end of the collection of autumn 2024 COVID-19 vaccination data and flu vaccination data for the 2024 to 2025 season.

  7. Updated to reflect the addition of breakdowns of care home occupancy statistics by bed type.

  8. Updated to reflect improved methodology to calculate the estimated proportion of people receiving ASC services covered by a digital social care record (DSCR).

  9. Updated to reflect addition of estimates of the proportion of adult social care provider locations currently implementing a digital social care record.

  10. Updated to reflect addition of estimates of the proportion of adult social care users with a digital social care record.

  11. Updated to reflect addition of the number of people receiving adult social care assessments, who have not received local authority long-term support in the previous 12 months, in client-level data tables.

  12. Updated to reflect the inclusion of COVID-19 autumn and flu vaccination data for the 2024 to 2025 season.

  13. Updated to reflect addition of the proportion of people receiving long-term support (rate per 100,000 population) alongside the number of people in client-level data tables.

  14. Updated to reflect the end of the collection of flu vaccination data for the 2023 to 2024 season.

  15. Updated to reflect the changes to the Capacity Tracker visiting question. Annex B updated to provide data quality assessment for CLD Q4 returns made by local authorities in April 2024 covering the first full year of activity (1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024) - alongside updated list of 4 local authorities with data quality issues that affect the statistics reported in the July publication.

  16. This methodology was last updated on 2 May 2024 alongside the May statistical report. Due to the pre-election period, the methodology will not be updated until after the election.

  17. Updated to reflect the removal of COVID-19 full primary course and autumn 2023 booster vaccination data.

  18. Updated to reflect addition of estimates of digital social care record uptake and changes to occupancy methodology.

  19. Updated to reflect the inclusion of Capacity Tracker derived occupancy data and new figures and information from the client level data collection.

  20. Updated to link to acute respiratory infection guidance, which has superseded the COVID-19 supplement to the 'Infection prevention and control in adult social care settings' guidance.

  21. Updated to reflect the inclusion of COVID-19 autumn booster and flu vaccination data for the 2023 to 2024 season.

  22. Updated to reflect when questions on COVID-19 vaccination in social care settings will become mandatory again in Capacity Tracker.

  23. Updated to reflect questions on COVID-19 vaccination in social care settings becoming non-mandatory in Capacity Tracker until the seasonal booster campaign begins.

  24. Updated to reflect the removal of testing data.

  25. Updated to include a new section on equivalent data published by other UK nations.

  26. Updated to reflect the end of the collection of flu vaccination data for the 2022 to 2023 season and a change in COVID-19 testing guidance in social care settings.

  27. Updated to reflect the end of the collection of COVID-19 autumn booster vaccination data and the upcoming end of the collection of flu vaccination data for the 2022 to 2023 season.

  28. Updated to include quality assurance and data validation methods used throughout this publication, and to reflect the upcoming removal of COVID-19 autumn booster vaccination data. Also updated to reflect this publication’s 'official statistics' badging.

  29. Updated to advise about the correct use of the vaccination rate denominator, and to specify the statistical disclosure control methods applied to data throughout this publication.

  30. Updated to specify the dates of the Adult Social Care Information (Enforcement) Regulations 2022, and to add information about a new NHS England publication on vaccination in care settings.

  31. Updated the date for the introduction of the enforcement regulation for the Capacity Tracker data provision.

  32. Updated to reflect changes in data download dates.

  33. Updated to reflect changes to the vaccination data collection and the inclusion of flu data for the 2022 to 2023 season.

  34. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Adult social care in England statistics: background quality and methodology (August 2022 to December 2025)

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Details

DHSC published monthly statistics on adult social care in England between May 2021 and December 2025.

This document sets out information on the context, sources, quality and coverage of the monthly statistics on adult social care in England reports from August 2022 to December 2025. This document will no longer be updated.

Due to the restructuring of the monthly publication schedule and introduction of new publications, these statistics are being released quarterly:

For feedback and any further questions, contact asc.statistics@dhsc.gov.uk

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