Official Statistics

Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025

Updated 1 May 2025

Applies to England

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About these statistics

This is a monthly publication by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) of official statistics on adult social care in England. Official statistics are produced in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and the Code of Practice for Statistics, and meet high standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value.

These statistics are assessed regularly and any improvements in quality are incorporated accordingly at the next available opportunity. The scope of the data included in this publication is also assessed to ensure the value of these statistics is maintained. Data collection may change in response to shifts in priorities, leading to corresponding adjustments in this bulletin’s reporting.

Introduction

This statistical bulletin provides an overview on a range of information on social care settings. We are transforming the content of the publication to capture a broader social care picture and to utilise new data as it becomes available. Details of new data and content can be found in the ‘Publication updates’ section, below.

This report provides information on:

• occupancy levels in care homes at national, regional and local authority level
• uptake of COVID-19 autumn 2024 vaccinations (care home and domiciliary care staff) and flu vaccinations (care home staff and residents and domiciliary care staff) for the 2024 to 2025 season in adult social care settings at national, regional and local authority level
• visiting in care homes at national, regional and local authority level
• staff absence rates due to COVID-19 in care homes and domiciliary care at national, regional and local authority level
• number of people receiving long-term support arranged or provided by the local authority, at national, regional and local authority level, derived from the client level data (CLD) collection and published as official statistics in development
• number of people receiving local authority care assessments, who had not received long-term support in the previous 12 months from local authorities at national, regional and local authority level, derived from the CLD collection and published as official statistics in development
• estimates of digital social care record (DSCR) uptake at national level, which are published as official statistics in development

Data on COVID-19 and flu vaccinations in adult social care settings, occupancy and visiting in care homes and staff absence in care settings in this publication is taken from Capacity Tracker. Capacity Tracker is a web-based digital insight tool originally developed by NHS England and the Better Care Fund to enable the system to better manage hospital discharges by identifying available capacity in care homes. It enables care homes to share their vacancies in real time, meaning hospital discharge teams and other health professionals can rapidly search availability throughout England. Since spring 2020, the tool has also been used by DHSC to gather COVID-19-related data to help monitor the sector’s response to the pandemic.

CLD is the primary source of information about local authority delivery of Care Act duties. CLD contains individual records of events including care and support needs assessments and reviews, and services arranged or provided by local authorities. It is based on data held in local authorities’ case management systems and was established as a mandatory collection on 1 April 2023 under Secretary of State Directions.

For more information on data sources, the data previously published as part of this report and other published sources of adult social care data, see the background quality and methodology for these statistics.

Publication updates

Updates to current report

Official statistics in development: client level data

Long-term support statistics from CLD were published as a monthly time series for the first time in this report in March 2024 as official statistics in development and are updated on a quarterly basis. This report contains the latest long-term support CLD figures.

Care assessment statistics from CLD were published as a monthly time series for the first time in this report in January 2025 as official statistics in development and will be updated on a quarterly basis. This report contains the latest figures at national and regional levels and statistics at local authority level are being published for the first time in this report.

Official statistics in development: digital social care records

Statistics on estimated uptake of DSCRs were published for the first time by DHSC in April 2024 as official statistics in development and will be updated on a quarterly basis. This report contains the latest DSCR figures.

Updates on future reports

The next publication will be released on 1 May 2025. Dates for future publications will be announced on the GOV.UK publication release calendar.

We intend to publish further breakdowns of care home occupancy rates by bed type from the May 2025 publication.

Official statistics in development: CLD and estimated uptake of digital social care records metrics will be updated in the July 2025 publication.

We are considering the possibility of ceasing the publication of seasonal vaccination data following the end of the autumn COVID-19 and 2024 to 2025 flu vaccination campaigns. If you are a regular or occasional user of this data and would be negatively affected by this change, please contact asc.statistics@dhsc.gov.uk.

Main points

This section discusses the main points of interest from the data tables, available on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page. For further detailed analysis on this data, see the ‘Further analysis’ section below.

Occupancy

As of the week ending 14 March 2025:

• 85.8% of beds in care homes were occupied
• 11.1% of beds in care homes were vacant and admittable
• 3.2% of beds in care homes were vacant and non-admittable

From February 2024 onwards, care home occupancy is calculated based on care homes that were active according to the most recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) registration data update in Capacity Tracker at the end of that month’s reporting window.

For more information, see the background quality and methodology for these statistics.

Figure 1: proportion of occupied, vacant and admittable, and vacant and non-admittable care home beds, England, 15 April 2024 to 14 March 2025

Source: Capacity Tracker

The main observations from figure 1 are:

• rates of occupied beds, vacant and admittable beds, and vacant and non-admittable beds have remained stable over the 12 months to March 2025
• the proportion of total beds occupied remained at or just above the 12-month average of 86.2% between August 2024 and December 2024, with this proportion decreasing slightly between November 2024 and January 2025. This proportion increased slightly between February 2025 and March 2025
• the proportion of total beds vacant and admittable remained below the 12-month average of 10.9% between August 2024 and December 2024, with this proportion increasing slightly between November 2024 and January 2025 and decreasing slightly between January 2025 and February 2025. This proportion remained the same between February 2025 and March 2025
• the proportion of total beds vacant and non-admittable remained at or just below the 12-month average of 3.0% between May 2024 and December 2024, with this proportion increasing slightly between November 2024 and January 2025. This proportion remained the same between January 2025 and March 2025

This data can be found in table 4 of the accompanying ‘Occupancy, visiting and workforce statistics, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page, in addition to data by region and local authority.

COVID-19 vaccination in adult social care settings

Within the 99.1% of older adult care home providers who had updated their seasonal vaccination data as of 14 March 2025, 9.1% of total staff had received an autumn 2024 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Within the 98.7% of younger adult care home providers who had updated their seasonal vaccination data as of 14 March 2025, 7.8% of total staff had received an autumn 2024 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Within the 97.6% of domiciliary care providers who had updated their seasonal vaccination data as of 14 March 2025, 10.1% of total staff had received an autumn 2024 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

All COVID-19 vaccination information for care home residents is published by NHS England on the NHS COVID-19 vaccinations page.

Flu vaccination in adult social care settings

Within the 99.1% of older adult care home providers who had updated their seasonal vaccination data as of 14 March 2025:

• 13.6% of total staff had received a flu vaccination for the 2024 to 2025 season
• 74.2% of total residents had received a flu vaccination for the 2024 to 2025 season

Within the 98.7% of younger adult care home providers who had updated their seasonal vaccination data as of 14 March 2025:

• 12.0% of total staff had received a flu vaccination for the 2024 to 2025 season
• 61.3% of total residents had received a flu vaccination for the 2024 to 2025 season

Within the 97.6% of domiciliary care providers who had updated their seasonal vaccination data as of 14 March 2025, 16.5% of total staff had received a flu vaccination for the 2024 to 2025 season.

As data is self-reported by care providers, COVID-19 and flu vaccination rates are affected by response rates. In previous years, due to the reporting of full primary course COVID-19 vaccinations, all active providers who had updated Capacity Tracker at any time were included in the vaccination figures. This year, only those who have updated Capacity Tracker since the first 2024 to 2025 seasonal vaccination questions were added on 28 August 2024 are included. For more information, see the background quality and methodology for these statistics.

Visiting in care homes

In the week ending 14 March 2025, 99.5% of care homes in England were able to accommodate residents receiving visitors. This figure has been stable since September 2022.

Figure 2: proportion of care homes accommodating or limiting visits for residents, England, 4 January 2022 to 14 March 2025

Source: Capacity Tracker

Note: the dotted lines in this chart represent the implementation of the changes in care home visiting guidance or changes to the visiting question in Capacity Tracker:

• A: from 31 January 2022, no limits on the number of named visitors, with testing and guidance to support safe visiting in place
• B: from 4 April 2022, no restrictions on visitation in care homes. Every care home resident should have one visitor who can visit in all circumstances (including during periods of isolation and outbreak)
• C: from 4 July 2022, the visiting questions in Capacity Tracker changed so care homes were asked whether residents had been allowed visits in or out of the care home in the last month, instead of in the last 7 days
• D: from 31 July 2022, providers are required to submit data on visiting on a monthly basis. From August 2022 onwards, the data points in this graph are monthly instead of weekly
• E: from 5 June 2024, the visiting questions in Capacity Tracker changed so care homes could no longer respond ‘only in exceptional circumstances’ to the question of whether residents had been allowed visits in and/or out of the care home in the last month

The main observation from figure 2 is that the proportion of care homes accommodating visiting for residents has broadly increased since mid January 2022, with the exception of slight decreases in early April 2022 and early July 2022. This number has stabilised since September 2022.

This data can be found in table 1 of the accompanying ‘Occupancy, visiting and workforce statistics, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page, in addition to data by region and local authority.

Staff absences due to COVID-19

In the week ending 14 March 2025, 0.1% of care home staff and 0.1% of domiciliary care staff were absent due to COVID-19-related reasons.

These proportions stayed the same for both care home staff and domiciliary care staff in the last month.

Figure 3: proportion of staff absent due to COVID-19-related reasons, England, 4 January 2022 to 14 March 2025

Source: Capacity Tracker

Notes:

• the proportion of staff absent due to COVID-19-related reasons is not comparable across care settings
• the dotted line in these charts represents the move to monthly reporting after the start of the mandatory data provision implemented on 31 July 2022. From August 2022 onwards, the data points in these graphs are monthly instead of weekly

The main observations from figure 3 are:

• since the peak of 2.9% in January 2022, there have been 2 further spikes in care home staff absence rates, in late March 2022 and mid July 2022. For domiciliary care absence, following a peak of 4.8% in January 2022, there have been a further 3 spikes, in late March 2022, mid July 2022 and mid October 2022
• from November 2022 to April 2023, absence rates due to COVID-19-related reasons remained broadly stable in both care homes and domiciliary care settings, and decreased between April and June 2023
• between June 2023 and March 2024, absence rates remained the same among care home staff and decreased slightly in April 2024
• between June and October 2023, absence rates broadly increased among domiciliary care staff and decreased in November 2023. From November 2023 to February 2024, absence rates among domiciliary care staff remained the same, before decreasing slightly in March 2024, May 2024 and September 2024
• absence rates have remained steady at 0.1% since April 2024 for care home staff and September 2024 for domiciliary care staff

This data can be found in tables 2 and 3 of the accompanying ‘Occupancy, visiting and workforce statistics, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page, in addition to data by region and local authority.

Official statistics in development: insights from client level data

Number of people receiving local authority arranged or provided long-term adult social care support

On 31 December 2024, there were 666,000 people receiving long-term local authority arranged or provided adult social care. As a population rate, this represents 1,460 people per 100,000 adults in England. Of these:

• 485,000 people were receiving support in the community, representing 1,060 per 100,000 adults in England
• 135,000 people were receiving support in the residential care homes, representing 300 per 100,000 adults
• 54,000 people were receiving support in nursing homes, representing 120 per 100,000 adults
• 230 people were receiving support in prison

Figure 4: number of people receiving local authority arranged or provided long-term adult social care support at the end of the month, England, by support setting from 31 January 2024 to 31 December 2024

Source: adult social care client level data collection

Notes:

• counts given are rounded to the nearest 1,000, except numbers below 10,000 which are rounded to the nearest 10. Rates per 100,000 population are rounded to the nearest 10
• people may be receiving long-term support in multiple settings
• statistics exclude the Isles of Scilly and Warwickshire
• proportions are not calculated for those receiving long-term support in prison settings
• different age groups are used for number of people receiving long-term support and proportion of people receiving long-term support

The total number of people receiving long-term support in England showed an increase from 646,000 on 31 January 2024 to 666,000 on 31 December 2024.

This trend is driven by the increase in long-term support delivered in community settings, including support in the form of direct payments from the local authority that people can then use to buy their own care and support. The number of people receiving long-term support in the community increased from 465,000 on 31 January 2024 to 485,000 on 31 December 2024. The reported increase could be partly due to improved reporting by some local authorities.

This data can be found in table 1 of the accompanying ‘Long-term support - official statistics in development, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page.

Number of people receiving adult social care assessments, who have not received local authority long-term support in the previous 12 months

From April 2024 to December 2024, 422,000 people received a local authority adult social care assessment in England, having not received local authority long-term support in the previous 12 months.

In July 2024, there were 51,000 people assessed, the largest monthly number during the period. The month with the lowest reported number of people assessed was December 2024, in which 41,000 people received an assessment. However, this apparent drop in December 2024 may be due to delays in recording of completed assessments on local case management systems, from which CLD is drawn, with CLD coming from records extracted and reported in January. Monthly time series will be updated in future publications, using quarterly CLD submissions that cover a rolling 12 month period.

Figure 5: number of people receiving adult social care assessments, who have not received local authority long-term support in the previous 12 months, England, from April 2024 to December 2024

Source: adult social care client level data collection

Notes:

• counts given are rounded to the nearest 1,000, except numbers below 10,000 which are rounded to the nearest 10
• statistics exclude Warwickshire

This data can be found in table 1 of the accompanying ‘Assessments - official statistics in development, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page.

Official statistics in development: digital social care records

Data on the estimated uptake of DSCRs is available up until the end of January 2025. As of January 2025, 75.0% of CQC-registered adult social care provider locations in England are estimated to have a DSCR, compared to 62.8% in January 2024.

Information on the uptake of DSCRs is self-reported. Adult social care provider locations registered with CQC are required to provide an updated position on their DSCR usage annually. This means that data reported each month represents a snapshot in time from a sample of roughly a twelfth of the CQC-registered adult social care provider location market. Due to the nature of this rotating sample, it is possible to see fluctuations in usage from one month to the next. To account for this potential for variation, the statistics presented in this report represent the reported use of DSCRs across the current and preceding 2 months.

For more information, see the background quality and methodology for these statistics.

Figure 6: estimated proportion of adult social care provider locations that have a DSCR, England, February 2022 to January 2025

Source: CQC provider information return (PIR)

The main observation from figure 6 is that the proportion of adult social care provider locations estimated to have a DSCR has broadly increased between February 2022 and January 2025.

This data can be found in table 1 of the accompanying ‘Estimated uptake of digital social care records – official statistics in development, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page.

Further analysis

Occupancy in care homes

There was some regional variation in care home occupancy rates. As of the week ending 14 March 2025, the proportion of total care home beds that were:

• occupied varied from 82.9% in the East Midlands to 88.1% in London and the North East
• vacant and admittable varied from 9.2% in London and the North West to 13.5% in the East Midlands
• vacant and non-admittable varied from 2.6% in the North East to 3.7% in Yorkshire and the Humber

Data on occupancy and response rates can be found in tables 4 and 8, respectively, of the accompanying ‘Occupancy, visiting and workforce statistics, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page.

As noted above, from February 2024 onwards, care home occupancy is based on care homes that were active as of the most recent CQC registration data update in Capacity Tracker at the end of that month’s reporting window.

For more information, see the background quality and methodology for these statistics.

COVID-19 and flu vaccination in adult social care settings

Data on COVID-19 and flu vaccination and response rates can be found in the accompanying ‘COVID-19 and flu vaccination statistics, April 2025: data tables’ and ‘COVID-19 and flu vaccination response rates, April 2025: data tables’, respectively, on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page, in addition to data by region and local authority.

COVID-19 vaccination in adult social care settings

There is some regional variation in reported COVID-19 autumn vaccination uptake among each of the adult social care groups. As of 14 March 2025, reported vaccination uptake among:

• older adult care home staff varied from 6.5% in London to 10.4% in the South West
• younger adult care home staff varied from 5.7% in the East Midlands to 10.2% in the North East
• domiciliary care staff varied from 8.7% in the North West to 11.6% in the South West

Flu vaccination in adult social care settings

There is some regional variation in reported flu vaccination uptake among each of the adult social care groups. As of 14 March 2025, reported vaccination uptake among:

• older adult care home residents varied from 68.5% in London to 77.0% in the South West
• older adult care home staff varied from 11.7% in London to 14.4% in the South East
• younger adult care home residents varied from 54.8% in the North West to 67.5% in the North East
• younger adult care home staff varied from 8.2% in the East Midlands to 15.9% in London
• domiciliary care staff varied from 15.4% in the North East and the North West to 19.0% in London

For more information, see the background quality and methodology for these statistics.

Accommodating COVID-safe visitation in care homes

In the week ending 14 March 2025, there was some regional variation in the proportion of care homes able to accommodate visits in or out of the care home for residents in all circumstances, ranging from 99.2% in the North West and the West Midlands to 99.8% in the South East.

Since 31 July 2022, this question is part of the subset of data that providers are required to submit on a monthly basis. For more information, see the background quality and methodology for these statistics.

From 5 June 2024, the visiting questions in Capacity Tracker changed so care homes could no longer respond ‘only in exceptional circumstances’ to the question of whether residents had been allowed visits in and/or out of the care home in the last month.

Data on accommodating COVID-safe visitation and response rates in care homes can be found in tables 1 and 5, respectively, of the accompanying ‘Occupancy, visiting and workforce statistics, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page, in addition to data by region and local authority.

Adult social care workforce

In care homes

In the week ending 14 March 2025 there was little regional variation, with regions reporting COVID-19-related staff absence rates between 0.0% and 0.1% (to one decimal place). Since the week ending 14 February 2025, absence rates decreased from 0.1% to 0.0% in London, and remained the same in all other regions.

Data on absences and response rates in care homes can be found in tables 2 and 6, respectively, of the accompanying ‘Occupancy, visiting and workforce statistics, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page.

In domiciliary care

Absence rates in domiciliary care settings are not directly comparable with those in residential care homes.

In the week ending 14 March 2025, there was little regional variation, with regions reporting COVID-19-related staff absence rates between 0.0% and 0.3% (to one decimal place). Since the week ending 14 February 2025, absence rates decreased from 0.1% to 0.0% in the North West, the South West and the West Midlands. Absence rates remained the same in all other regions.

Data on absences and response rates in domiciliary care settings can be found in tables 3 and 7, respectively, of the accompanying ‘Occupancy, visiting and workforce statistics, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page.

For more information, see the background quality and methodology for these statistics.

Official statistics in development: insights from client level data

Number of people receiving local authority arranged or provided long-term adult social care support

Ethnicity

The figure below shows numbers per 100,000 population in England using the broadest Office for National Statistics ethnicity classifications. Looking in more detail at smaller groups by ethnicity, White people of English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British background were the largest ethnic group in receipt of long-term support. As of 31 December 2024, 514,000 people identifying as this ethnicity were receiving long-term support, representing 1,530 per 100,000 people of this ethnicity in England.

There were 6,920 Black people who categorised themselves as backgrounds other than Caribbean or African who were in receipt of long-term support on 31 December 2024. This represented 4,420 per 100,000 people and was the highest rate of any ethnic group, followed by Black people of Caribbean background of whom 2,710 people per 100,000 were receiving long-term support.

There were 34,000 people recorded with undeclared or unknown ethnicity and 2,310 people who refused to declare their ethnicity of those receiving long-term support on 31 December 2024.

Figure 7: number of people per 100,000 in England receiving local authority arranged or provided long-term adult social care support, by ethnicity, 31 December 2024

Source: adult social care client level data collection

Notes:

• rates per 100,000 population are rounded to the nearest 10
• people may be receiving long-term support in multiple settings
• statistics exclude the Isles of Scilly and Warwickshire
• proportions are not calculated for those receiving long-term support in prison settings

This data can be found in table 3 of the accompanying ‘Long-term support - official statistics in development, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page.

Gender

Of those receiving long-term support on 31 December 2024:

• 375,000 people identified themselves as female, representing 1,590 per 100,000 female adults in England
• 291,000 people identified themselves as male, representing 1,310 per 100,000 male adults in England
• 340 people identified themselves as another gender
• 570 people did not have a recorded gender

This data can be found in table 2 of the accompanying ‘Long-term support - official statistics in development, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page.

Age group

CLD allows for the most detailed insight to date into the age distribution of people interacting with the local authority adult social care system.

Of those receiving long-term support on 31 December 2024, 391,000 were aged 65 or above, representing 3,630 people per 100,000 people aged 65 and above in England. 275,000 were aged 18 to 64, representing 790 per 100,000 adults under 65 in England.

Of people aged 85 and above, 11,000 per 100,000 people were receiving long-term support on 31 December 2024. This compares with 3,640 per 100,000 people aged 75 to 84 and 1,570 per 100,000 people aged 65 to 74.

For all age groups except people aged 95 and above, there was an increase in the number of people receiving long-term support in the community from 31 January 2024 to 31 December 2024.

Figure 8: number of people receiving local authority arranged or provided long-term adult social care support in the community at the end of the month, England, by age group, from 31 January 2024 to 31 December 2024

Source: adult social care client level data collection

Notes:

• counts given are rounded to the nearest 1,000, except numbers below 10,000 which are rounded to the nearest 10
• people may be receiving long-term support in multiple settings
• statistics exclude the Isles of Scilly and Warwickshire
• different age groups are used for number of people receiving long-term support and proportion of people receiving long-term support

This data can be found in table 1 of the accompanying ‘Long-term support - official statistics in development, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page.

Region and local authority

On 31 December 2024, the 3 English regions with the largest number of people receiving long-term support were:

• North West: 105,000 people
• London: 101,000 people
• South East: 97,000 people

The region with the largest proportion of people receiving long-term support on 31 December 2024 was the North East with 1,830 per 100,000 people living in the North East. Conversely, the smallest proportion was the 1,290 per 100,000 people in the South East.

All regions had a small reported increase in the number of people receiving long-term support from 31 January 2024 to 31 December 2024 except the East Midlands which had a small reported decrease.

At local authority level, figures and any apparent trends should be interpreted with caution, since we are aware that some local authorities do not have complete coverage and have known data quality issues that they have improved over time and are working to resolve for future submissions. Further information about data quality can be found in the accompanying background quality and methodology document.

Number of people receiving adult social care assessments, who have not received local authority long-term support in the previous 12 months

Ethnicity

Between April 2024 and December 2024, 291,000 people receiving adult social care assessments identified as being White and of an English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British background. This makes this group the majority (69%) of those receiving assessments with a recorded ethnicity.

In this period, the number of people assessed in each broad ethnic group is:

• Asian or Asian British: 22,000
• Black, Black British, Caribbean or African: 14,000
• Mixed or multiple ethnic groups: 4,300
• White: 307,000
• Other ethnic group: 6,290
• No data: 69,000

Gender

The majority of people assessed between April 2024 and December 2024 identified as female (57% of those with recorded gender); in this period, 242,000 were assessed. There were 176,000 people identifying as male that were assessed in the same period. Additionally, 320 identified as being a gender other than female or male. 3,280 people did not have a recorded gender.

Age group

Between April 2024 and December 2024, there were 289,000 people assessed in England who were aged 65 and above. In the same period, 132,000 people were assessed who were aged 18 to 64. There were also 670 people with unrecorded age assessed.

Within the older age groups, the number of people assessed in this period is:

• 118,000 people aged 75 to 84
• 97,000 people aged 85 to 94
• 11,000 people aged 95 and above

The relatively small number of people being assessed aged 95 and above can likely be explained by a smaller overall population and a higher proportion of people already receiving long-term support by that age.

Region and local authority

Between April 2024 and December 2024, the 3 regions with the largest number of people that received assessments were:

• North West: 63,000
• South East: 62,000
• London: 53,000

Comparison between localities should be made with caution as there are some differences in local reporting that may lead to invalid conclusions.

At local authority level, figures and any apparent trends should be interpreted with caution, since we are aware that some local authorities do not have complete coverage and have known data quality issues that they have improved over time and are working to resolve for future submissions. Further information about data quality can be found in the accompanying background quality and methodology document.

Official statistics in development: digital social care records

Data on the estimated uptake of DSCRs is available up until the end of January 2025.

People receiving adult social care services in England with a DSCR

As of January 2025, 85.1% of people cared for by CQC-registered adult social care providers in England are estimated to have a DSCR, compared to 75.0% in January 2024.

Data on the estimated coverage of DSCRs among people receiving adult social care services is available from October 2022, capturing information provided since August 2022. This follows the commencement of the ASC provider information provisions on 31 July 2022.

Following further quality assurance of the accompanying data table presenting the estimated proportion of people receiving adult social care services in England with a DSCR, these figures are now presented to 1 decimal place.

For more information, see the background quality and methodology for these statistics.

Figure 9: proportion of people cared for by adult social care providers estimated to have a DSCR, England, October 2022 to January 2025

Sources: CQC provider information return (PIR), Capacity Tracker

The main observation from figure 9 is that the proportion of people receiving adult social care services estimated to have a DSCR has broadly increased between October 2022 and January 2025.

This data can be found in table 2 of the accompanying ‘Estimated uptake of digital social care records – official statistics in development, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page.

Adult social care provider locations in England who are in the process of implementing a DSCR

As of January 2025, an estimated 13.8% of adult social care provider locations are in the process of implementing a DSCR.

This information is taken from Capacity Tracker, which is updated monthly. The question in Capacity Tracker relating to DSCR use is not mandatory and as such this data may not be fully representative. It should be viewed only as an indication of the proportion of provider locations who may have a DSCR in the near future.

This data can be found in table 3 of the accompanying ‘Estimated uptake of digital social care records - official statistics in development, April 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: April 2025 page. Due to differences in data sources and coverage between metrics, proportions published in the accompanying data tables cannot be added together.

For more information, see the background quality and methodology for these statistics.

Terminology

Active Capacity Tracker locations

Care homes which have a CQC active status, excluding those with a current dormancy start date.

Care home

Facilities providing residential care. The data in this bulletin refers to CQC-registered care homes.

Care provider location

The term used by CQC for a care home or home care agency, noting some care home locations will also offer home care. The term also includes a small number of other social care locations which are neither care homes nor home care agencies.

Digital social care records (DSCRs)

Software solutions for recording a person’s care information. They replace paper records.

Domiciliary care

Services providing personal care for people living in their own homes. The data in this bulletin refers to domiciliary staff employed by independent CQC-registered providers.

Older adult care homes

Care homes serving any older people (aged 65 and over) as identified from the latest CQC data on care homes in the ‘older people service’ user band. A small number of residents within care homes serving older people may be aged under 65.

Staff

Unless specified, staff can refer to staff directly employed by a provider and/or through an agency.

Vacant and admittable beds

Beds which are vacant and available to accept an admission on the day of data submission, as self-reported by care providers in Capacity Tracker.

Vacant and non-admittable beds

Beds which are vacant but not available for admission on the day of data submission, as self-reported by care providers in Capacity Tracker. This includes the number of beds which are vacant and reserved.

Younger adult care homes

Care homes not serving any older people (aged 65 and over) as identified from the latest CQC data on care homes in the ‘older people service’ user band.

About this data

These statistics are being published as a part of a wider landscape of statistics on adult social care. The Government Statistical Service compiles a UK adult social care database of official statistics on adult social care across the 4 nations of the UK. This is updated on a monthly basis.

The UK Statistics Authority conducted a review of adult social care statistics in England, which called for:

• better leadership and collaboration across different organisations publishing official statistics. This publication has been produced in collaboration with other statistics providers of COVID-19 adult social care data and DHSC will endeavour to work with various stakeholders as more data is published through this publication
• addressing of gaps in available data, particularly in privately-funded care. This bulletin aims to plug some of that gap by including data on residents privately funding their care in addition to those funded by local authorities
• improving existing official statistics. Statistics derived from Capacity Tracker are badged as official statistics and more data will be added iteratively based on user needs

Data sources

Capacity Tracker

Data on COVID-19 and flu vaccinations in adult social care settings, occupancy and visiting in care homes, staff absence and numbers of people receiving adult social care services (as used to estimate the DSCR coverage of people receiving adult social care) is taken from self-reported data submitted by care providers in England through a data collection and insight tool called Capacity Tracker. From 31 July 2022, this data is part of the subset of data that providers are required to submit on a monthly basis.

Data on the estimated proportion of adult social care provider locations who are in the process of implementing a DSCR is taken from Capacity Tracker. This question does not fall under the formal notice of a mandate and as such this data may not be fully representative.

CLD collection

The long-term support and assessment statistics in this publication are created using CLD. The CLD collection is the first national collection of social care records, covering requests for support, assessments, reviews and services arranged or provided by local authorities as part of their duties under the Care Act 2014.

CQC PIR

Data on the estimated uptake of DSCRs by adult social care provider locations is obtained from the PIR. The PIR is managed by CQC. Each adult social care provider is required to complete their return annually, usually on the anniversary of their registration with CQC.

More detailed information about data sources can be found in the background quality and methodology for these statistics. This document also includes detailed information on:

• data coverage
• data quality
• relevance
• accuracy and reliability
• timeliness and punctuality
• comparability and coherence
• accessibility and clarity
• cost and burden

Revisions

Any revisions to past publications will be in line with DHSC’s revision policy and highlighted in future publications accordingly.