Help us get a snapshot of the social care workforce in Wales

We’re asking local authorities and independent service providers to send us data on their workforce numbers and characteristics as part of our annual workforce data collection.

We carry out the workforce data collection to give a snapshot of the social care workforce in Wales.

We analyse the data and present it in a report we publish every year, which gives an overview of the workforce as a whole and breaks the findings down for different settings.

We’ll be publishing our report about the 2023 collection later this year.

We’ll also use the data to produce related articles and content about different aspects of our findings through the National Social Care Data Portal for Wales.

This year’s data collection will begin on 9 September and close on 31 October.

We need your organisation to send us data through SCWonline.

If you’re a data collector for your organisation, you should see ‘Workforce Data Collection’ appear in the top menu when you log into your SCWonline account.

Once you’ve clicked through to the workforce data collection area of the site, you’ll find guidance on how to complete your return.

It's mandatory for local authorities to send us their data, but data from commissioned providers helps us build a more complete picture of the social care sector in Wales. Commissioned providers are made up of commercial businesses, not-for-profit and third-sector organisations, and 68 per cent of them sent their data to us in 2022.

Having the fullest picture possible of the size and shape of the social care workforce in Wales helps us to plan ahead.

By providing your data, you're contributing to our understanding of the people who work in social care in Wales.

If you’re unsure who the data collector for your organisation is, please contact data@socialcare.wales.

Visit our workforce data collection page to find out more about the collection, why we collect the data, what we do with it, and how we’re working with Care Inspectorate Wales to reduce the burden of sending data to both organisations.