Skills for Care is dedicating this October to highlighting how data shapes policy and supports positive change in adult social care.
Its Making a difference with data campaign will focus on the vital nature of data to the care sector, why it is important to maintain high quality data, and how employers can contribute their data by using the Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS).
ASC-WDS is the most complete and extensive source of data about the adult social care sector workforce in England and is used by the government and other key stakeholders to make important decisions that shape the future for our sector.
The service also allows employers to safely store their staff records to support with activities such as workforce planning and managing training, as well as to benchmark their organisation against other similar organisations for key workforce metrics.
This campaign will run throughout October and will include resources, case studies, and insight on how employers are using ASC-WDS to benefit their organisation, how they ensure they are submitting and maintaining high quality data, and how this data is used to make better decisions. The campaign will use the hashtag #DataDrivesChange.
Dave Griffiths, programme head – analysis at Skills for Care, said: “Our workforce data is used across the sector- for policy and decision making in government, in parliamentary debate, by CQC, academics, trade associations and local authorities. It provides the evidence base for driving change for people who work in social care and the people who draw on care and support. The upcoming #DataDrivesChange campaign will demonstrate the impact of our data and highlight the benefits of using the ASC-WDS service to care providers.
“Over 20,000 care providers already use ASC-WDS to help their business and the sector. I’d encourage all care providers to look at what ASC-WDS can do for them. It’s free to access and thousands of care providers use it in their work and to help them claim funding for staff training.”
