Publication, Part of Personal Social Services: Staff of Social Services Departments
Personal Social Services: Staff of Social Services Departments, England 2020
National statistics
Introduction
There was a gross current expenditure of £19.7 billion in 2019-20 on adult social care by Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs), with 838,530 clients receiving long term care, and 1,930,560 requests for support from new clients. To provide adult social care services, staff are employed in both the public and private sectors. This publication concentrates on adult social care jobs in local authorities only, job groups include: Direct care (such as Care Workers and Community Support), Professional (including Social Workers), Manager / Supervisor staff and Other staff groups.
All data is collected from Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs) in England, however for ease of reading CASSRs will be referred to as local authorities throughout this publication.
The scope of this report
This publication contains information on staff employed (directly and indirectly) by local authority adult social services departments in England who provide social care services to members of the public.
There were 114,100 adult social services jobs within local authorities at September 2020.
In Table 1.1 the equivalent figure in 2019 (113,300) shows adult social care jobs within local authority adult social services departments accounted for 6.9% of the estimated 1.6 million adult social care jobs in England as at September 2019. Over three quarters (78.6%) of jobs in adult social care were in the independent sector. Estimates of the size of the rest of the adult social care workforce as at September 2020 will be published by Skills for Care in July 2021.
Table 1.1: Estimated number and proportions of adult social care jobs, by employer type
|
Employer type |
2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local authority | 159,400 | 150,700 | 140,700 | 130,100 | 120,200 | 112,800 | 109,300 | 112,200 | 113,300 | 114,100 |
| Independent | 1,060,000 | 1,165,000 | 1,190,000 | 1,220,000 | 1,230,000 | 1,245,000 | 1,265,000 | 1,280,000 | 1,295,000 | * |
| NHS | 71,200 | 71,600 | 76,600 | 81,100 | 85,500 | 91,300 | 95,000 | 96,500 | 102,100 | * |
| Direct payment recipients | 129,000 | 130,000 | 136,000 | 140,000 | 137,000 | 140,000 | 141,000 | 141,000 | 137,000 | * |
| Total | 1,420,000 | 1,480,000 | 1,520,000 | 1,550,000 | 1,560,000 | 1,580,000 | 1,600,000 | 1,630,000 | 1,650,000 | * |
| Employer type | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local authority | 11.2% | 10.2% | 9.3% | 8.4% | 7.7% | 7.1% | 6.8% | 6.9% | 6.9% | * |
| Independent | 74.7% | 78.6% | 78.4% | 78.4% | 78.8% | 78.6% | 79.0% | 78.5% | 78.6% | * |
| NHS | 5.0% | 4.8% | 5.0% | 5.2% | 5.5% | 5.8% | 5.9% | 5.9% | 6.2% | * |
| Direct payment recipients | 9.1% | 8.8% | 8.9% | 9.0% | 8.7% | 8.9% | 8.8% | 8.7% | 8.3% | * |
| Total | 1,420,000 | 1,480,000 | 1,520,000 | 1,550,000 | 1,560,000 | 1,580,000 | 1,600,000 | 1,630,000 | 1,650,000 | * |
*Estimates of the total size of the adult social care workforce for 2020 will be published by Skills for Care in July 2021.
Please note figures for Independent sector and Jobs for direct payment recipients were revised for 2012-2019. 2012 is now used as the baseline for whole sector data.
Source: Skills for Care - ASC-WDS
As reported in The Size and Structure of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England, 2020 (Skills for Care), since 2012 adult social care jobs have moved steadily away from local authority into the independent sector.
The number of local authority jobs has decreased by 36,600 in total or an average of 4,600 jobs each year between 2012 and 2020*. Other parts of the adult social care sector have grown, between 2012 and 2019, especially the independent sector which has increased by 130,000 jobs as seen in Figure 1.2 below.
*Local authority figures based on latest 2020 data whereas the rest of the sector is based on 2019 data.
Source: Skills for Care - ASC-WDS
However, (as seen in Figure 1.3 below) in 2020 local authority jobs have increased since the previous year for the third time since reporting began from ASC-WDS in 2011. As at September 2020 there were 114,100 local authority jobs, up 0.7% (800 jobs) from 2019.
The publication does not cover staff employed by children’s social services departments or staff employed in the independent sector (private and voluntary). The Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS) does collect information about staff in the independent sector (on a voluntary basis) and as at September 2020 had received around 560,000 individual worker records from this part of the sector. Skills for Care’s ‘The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England’ report contains information on the independent sector.
Last edited: 21 June 2021 5:04 pm