Care management


demand and supply to support the sector to recruit the right amount of people in the right places with the right skills and behaviours to support people who draw on services in our communities. One of our core roles is to look to the


future needs of the adult social care sector and support positive change. This means supporting the whole sector to innovate, make the best use of data, and evidence, and working collaboratively with our partners to build a social care workforce that is fit for the future.


We use our high-quality data and intelligence to support local and national stakeholders to effectively develop strategy, commission, and plan for the workforce together, helping stakeholders to understand the workforce and how it must develop to meet the changing needs of our society.


How social care providers can use our data to support change We work closely with the government, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), local authorities and other sector- wide decision makers to help provide data and insight to drive forward positive change for the sector. We also provide intelligence and robust data to help empower providers at an organisational level to make plans for


Embracing change does not mean throwing all caution to the wind. In fact, adopting positive change must involve analysing and assessing what change is needed and why


change based on hard facts. ASC-WDS can support providers in identifying and managing change by providing a secure and easy way to track their own data, and to benchmark this against other providers.


When considering changes across any organisation, it is important to ensure an organisation will be suitably skilled and resourced to implement those changes. For example, do you have enough staff with the right training to branch into a new specialism or comply with a regulatory change? ASC-WDS provides a system for social care managers to store all staff training records allowing you to easily identify skills gaps and plan in required learning and development to support any new changes being introduced.


The benchmarking feature within ASC-


WDS also helps providers to understand their local market.


Using the benchmarking feature, managers can compare their service against similar care providers in their area on


workforce metrics such as turnover rates, staff sickness days, percentage of staff with relevant qualifications, and pay rates. Having access to this data and comparison can help to identify any changes around staff recruitment and induction, how health and wellbeing is managed, and what qualifications or skills are needed within new roles. ASC-WDS also allows providers to compare their service against those rated ‘Good’ and ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which can help to identify common elements among these top-rated providers, and where changes and improvements could be made inspired by what these providers are doing well.


Our research and influencing We all use evidence to inform our work and decisions. This could be feedback from people who draw on care and support, financial reports, advice from staff, or research evidence.


Skills for Care undertakes research and impact projects which provide the social care sector with evidence that can aid in making strategic workforce decisions and change. Our workforce intelligence team works with the data collected in ASC-WDS to share intelligence and insight into the sector. This work is crucial in helping us understand what the adult social care workforce in England looks like today and what it might look like in the future.


We share this data annually in our Size


and structure of the social care sector and workforce in England report, and our State of the adult social care sector and workforce in England report. We also produce monthly tracking updates on vacancies, sickness and occupancy. We work closely with DHSC and recently


we have provided data to help them understand the implications of Brexit on the social care workforce and the impact of changes to the National Living Wage, as well as to inform the development of the government’s People at the Heart of Care White Paper.


We also use our data and evidence base to influence the future direction of social care, this includes sharing our data


April 2022 www.thecarehomeenvironment.com 41


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