Social care, childcare and children's services statistics: the official sources
Social care and childcare statistics are the official figures on adult care services, the care workforce, unpaid carers, early years childcare and children looked after by councils. They come from several producers: the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England for adult care, Skills for Care for the care workforce, the Department for Education for childcare and children's social care, the ONS for census-based carer numbers, and separate bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Fact-checkers use them for claims about care home capacity, staff shortages, hospital discharge delays, free childcare and children in care.
What it publishes
- Quarterly DHSC adult social care provider statistics for England from the Capacity Tracker: care home bed occupancy, care home residents, people receiving regulated home care and digital care record uptake, by region and council.
- NHS England's annual Adult Social Care Activity and Finance Report: council spending on adult social care, requests for support and people receiving long-term care, for each council in England.
- Skills for Care's annual estimates of filled and vacant posts, pay, turnover and international recruitment in adult social care in England, produced as official statistics since 2023.
- NHS England's monthly discharge delay statistics for acute hospitals, and Public Health Scotland's monthly delayed discharge census.
- Census estimates of unpaid carers and the hours they provide: ONS for England and Wales (2021), Scotland's Census (2022) and NISRA for Northern Ireland (2021).
- DfE statistics on funded early education take-up, the childcare provider survey (places, staff and hourly fees) and the survey of parents (use of childcare and what families pay).
- DfE annual statistics on children looked after, adoptions and care leavers, and on children in need, referrals and child protection plans, for every council in England.
- Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Department of Health statistics on looked-after children and child protection under their own laws.
Key datasets
- Adult social care provider statistics, England (DHSC)
Care home occupancy, residents and home care recipients in England from the Capacity Tracker, with regional and council tables. Replaced the monthly DHSC adult social care statistics from 2026.
- Adult Social Care Activity and Finance Report (NHS England)
Gross and net council spending on adult social care, unit costs, requests for support and long-term care recipients, by council in England, back many years.
- Size and structure of the adult social care workforce (Skills for Care)
Filled posts, vacant posts, vacancy rates and projections for adult social care in England, based on the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set.
- Discharge delays, acute hospitals (NHS England)
Patients discharged after their discharge ready date and the length of delays, by trust in England.
- Delayed discharges in NHS Scotland (Public Health Scotland)
Monthly census of patients delayed in hospital and bed days used, by reason, health board and council area.
- Care home census for adults in Scotland (Public Health Scotland)
Care homes, registered places, residents and occupancy in Scotland from 2014-15; the October 2025 release was the last in its current form.
- Unpaid care, England and Wales: Census 2021 (ONS)
Number and share of people providing unpaid care and weekly hours, down to local authority, compared with 2011.
- Scotland's Census 2022: health, disability and unpaid care
Unpaid carers in Scotland by age, sex and hours of care, compared with 2011.
- Funded early education and childcare (DfE)
Children registered for the universal, working parent and disadvantaged 2-year-old entitlements in England each January, with take-up rates by council.
- Childcare and early years provider survey (DfE)
Childcare places, staff, qualifications, finances and mean and median hourly fees by age group and provider type in England.
- Children looked after in England including adoptions (DfE)
Children in care on 31 March, placements, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, adoptions and care leavers, by council.
- Children in need (DfE)
Children in need, referrals, assessments, section 47 enquiries and child protection plans in England, by council.
APIs and downloads
- Explore Education Statistics data catalogue and APICSV downloads for every DfE childcare and children's social care release; a public API serves selected datasets without a key.
- DWP Stat-XploreFree account gives Carer's Allowance and other benefit tables by area; an API is available with a personal key.
- CQC data and APIMonthly care directory spreadsheets of every registered care home and home care service in England, with ratings; the CQC API needs a free subscription key from its developer portal.
- Nomis census tablesCensus 2021 unpaid care tables for small areas in England and Wales, downloadable as CSV or through the Nomis API.
When it publishes
DHSC provider statistics come out quarterly at 9:30am on a Thursday, with the next date in each release. DfE publishes childcare take-up in July, the provider survey in December, children in need in autumn and children looked after in November, at 9:30am. Skills for Care publishes its workforce estimates each June and its state of the sector report each autumn.
How to use it to check a claim
- For care home claims, check whether a figure counts homes, registered beds or residents, and which country it covers.
- With Capacity Tracker resident counts, note the share of providers that responded; the total is not a full count.
- For care staff numbers, Skills for Care counts filled posts, not people, and covers England only.
- For delayed discharge, use the latest NHS England definition based on discharge ready dates, and do not compare it with the older criteria to reside series.
- For childcare claims, separate the universal 15 hours, the working parent hours and the disadvantaged 2-year-old offer, which have different eligibility.
- For children in care, use the rate per 10,000 children when comparing councils or the four nations, and read the notes on different legal frameworks.
- For unpaid carers, say which census or survey a number comes from, because survey estimates run higher than census counts.
Common mistakes
- Treating care home fee thresholds in England as UK-wide, when Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own capital limits and Scotland provides free personal and nursing care.
- Comparing gross and net council social care spending, which differ by client charges and NHS contributions.
- Presenting looked-after children, children in need and children on protection plans as the same group.
- Reading a fall in registered childcare places for 3 and 4-year-olds as lower take-up, when the number of children in that age group is also falling.
- Comparing hourly childcare fees from the provider survey with weekly amounts paid from the parents' survey.
Where can I find how many people work in social care?
Skills for Care publishes annual estimates of filled and vacant posts in adult social care in England each June, as official statistics. Scotland's figures come from the Scottish Social Services Council, Wales has its own workforce data, and Northern Ireland publishes separately. NHS staff are counted in NHS workforce statistics, not these figures.
Is there official data on care home fees?
There is no single official average fee covering all care home residents. Council-funded long-term care spending and unit costs are in NHS England's Adult Social Care Activity and Finance Report. Means-test thresholds that decide who pays are set out by the NHS in England, the Welsh Government and Care Information Scotland.
How do I find childcare statistics for my area?
Explore Education Statistics has local authority tables for funded childcare take-up, children looked after and children in need in England. Use the release's 'Explore data' tool or download the CSV and filter by council. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland publish their own childcare and children's social care data.
Questions answered using this source
- How do I make a Freedom of Information request?
- How many free childcare hours can parents get in England?
- What are NHS waiting times in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
- Where can I find official GCSE results statistics?
- Where can I find UK census data?
- What is the population of the UK?
- How long is the NHS waiting list?
- How many people claim benefits in the UK?
- Who pays for care home fees, and what is the savings threshold?
- How many unpaid carers are there in the UK?
- How many GPs are there in England?
- What is a looked-after child?
Links checked 2026-10-13. This page describes what the source publishes and gives no verdict on any claim.