We’re working with Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) to bring together our two annual data collections into one single process.
Social care providers are currently asked to submit two sets of data every year – one to CIW through the Annual Returns, and one to us through our workforce data collection.
The data that’s collected includes information about workforce numbers, characteristics and working hours.
Both data sets are used to get a better understanding of those who work in social care in Wales. The data is also used for future planning and decision-making, to help manage the challenges faced by the sector.
From 2026, we and CIW will introduce a single, shared data collection process. This will make it easier for social care providers by reducing the need for them to collect similar information twice.
This will also support our commitment to the Performance and Improvement Framework for social care in Wales, by simplifying the work to gather high quality data.
We’ll share more information with providers over the next few months.