Official Statistics

Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: May 2025

Published 1 May 2025

Applies to England

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 Office for Statistics Regulation’s 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.

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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

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.

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

Occupancy in care homes

This report features further breakdowns of care home occupancy by bed type for the first time.

Official statistics in development: client level data

Long-term support statistics from client level data (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.

Revised data tables for October 2024, January 2025 and April 2025 have been published alongside this report. In the April 2025 tables, 3 local authorities’ populations and proportions of people receiving local authority provided or organised long-term adult social care support by ethnicity were incorrectly suppressed and have now been corrected. In the October 2024 and January 2025 tables, 4 local authorities’ populations and proportions of people receiving local authority provided or organised long-term adult social care support by ethnicity were incorrectly suppressed and have now been corrected. Corresponding counts are unaffected.

Updates on future reports

The next publication will be released on 5 June 2025. Dates for future publications will be announced on the GOV.UK publication release calendar.

Official statistics in development: CLD and estimated uptake of digital social care records metrics are updated on a quarterly basis and will next be updated in the July 2025 publication.

As the seasonal COVID-19 autumn and flu vaccination campaigns have ended, the data collection on vaccination for the 2024 to 2025 season ceased on 30 April 2025, with the question removed from Capacity Tracker on the same date. The full time series (up to 14 April 2025) is presented in the accompanying ‘COVID-19 and flu vaccination statistics, May 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: May 2025 page. These tables will be removed from June 2025 onwards, but historical data will still be available in prior editions of this 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: May 2025 page. For further detailed analysis on this data, see the ‘Further analysis’ section below.

Occupancy

As of the week ending 14 April 2025:

• 85.7% of total beds in care homes were occupied
• 11.1% of total beds in care homes were vacant and admittable
• 3.3% of total 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, 14 May 2024 to 14 April 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 April 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, before decreasing slightly between March 2025 and April 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 April 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, before increasing slightly between March 2025 and April 2025

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

COVID-19 vaccination in adult social care settings

As of 14 April 2025:

• 9.2% of older adult care home staff had received an autumn 2024 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, among the 99.1% of older adult care home providers who had updated their seasonal vaccination data
• 7.8% of younger adult care home staff had received an autumn 2024 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, among the 98.9% of younger adult care home providers who had updated their seasonal vaccination data
• 10.3% of domiciliary care staff had received an autumn 2024 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, among the 97.6% of domiciliary care providers who had updated their seasonal vaccination data

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 April 2025:

• 74.1% of total residents had received a flu vaccination for the 2024 to 2025 season
• 13.8% of total staff had received a flu vaccination for the 2024 to 2025 season

Within the 98.9% of younger adult care home providers who had updated their seasonal vaccination data as of 14 April 2025:

• 61.5% of total residents had received a flu vaccination for the 2024 to 2025 season
• 12.1% of total staff 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 April 2025, 16.7% 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 April 2025, 99.3% 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 April 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, May 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: May 2025 page, in addition to data by region and local authority.

Staff absences due to COVID-19

In the week ending 14 April 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 April 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, May 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: May 2025 page, in addition to data by region and local authority.

Further analysis

Occupancy in care homes

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

• occupied varied from 83.0% in the East Midlands to 88.8% in London
• vacant and admittable varied from 8.5% in London to 13.2% in the East Midlands
• vacant and non-admittable varied from 2.4% in the North East to 3.9% in Yorkshire and the Humber

Care home occupancy by bed type

The proportions of total beds occupied by bed type, as of the week ending 14 April 2025, were:

• 85.4% of non-specialist residential beds
• 85.8% of non-specialist nursing beds
• 86.9% of specialist and other beds

The proportions of total beds vacant and admittable by bed type, as of the week ending 14 April 2025, were:

• 11.4% of non-specialist residential beds
• 11.0% of non-specialist nursing beds
• 9.5% of specialist and other beds

The proportions of total beds vacant and non-admittable by bed type, as of the week ending 14 April 2025, were:

• 3.2% of non-specialist residential beds
• 3.2% of non-specialist nursing beds
• 3.6% of specialist and other beds

Data on occupancy and response rates can be found in tables 4a to 4d and 8 of the accompanying ‘Occupancy, visiting and workforce statistics, May 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: May 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, May 2025: data tables’ and ‘COVID-19 and flu vaccination response rates, May 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 April 2025, reported vaccination uptake among:

• older adult care home staff varied from 6.6% in London to 10.5% in the South West
• younger adult care home staff varied from 5.8% in the East Midlands to 10.0% in the North East
• domiciliary care staff varied from 9.3% in the North West to 11.7% 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 April 2025, reported vaccination uptake among:

• older adult care home residents varied from 68.1% in London to 77.1% in the South West
• older adult care home staff varied from 12.1% in London and the North East to 14.6% in the South East
• younger adult care home residents varied from 54.3% in the North West to 67.5% in the North East
• younger adult care home staff varied from 9.0% in the East Midlands to 16.2% in London
• domiciliary care staff varied from 15.5% in the East of England and the North West to 19.1% 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 April 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 99.1% in the North East and the West Midlands to 99.6% 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, May 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: May 2025 page, in addition to data by region and local authority.

Adult social care workforce

In care homes

In the week ending 14 April 2025 there was no regional variation, with all regions reporting a COVID-19-related staff absence rate of 0.1% (to one decimal place). Since the week ending 14 March 2025, absence rates increased from 0.0% to 0.1% 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, May 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: May 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 April 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 March 2025, absence rates increased from 0.0% to 0.1% in Yorkshire and the Humber and the West Midlands, and decreased from 0.3% to 0.0% in London. 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, May 2025: data tables’ on the Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: May 2025 page.

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 and staff absence 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.

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.