Metric permalink
Adult social care vacancies
Part of the Public Service Capacity domain. Share of adult social care roles that are vacant, England, by financial year.
Latest data
Latest reading
2025-26
Change between the two latest observations (2025 to 2025-26), in stress score.
A higher reading is treated as worse for this indicator.
Score composition
Stress score
Since the August 2026 release
What changed on this indicator between the two releases: method only.
Blended from two measured components: (2/3 weight) and trend (1/3 weight); where no trend can be computed the metric is scored on its level alone. Volatility is published as a diagnostic and does not enter the blend. Full formula on the methodology page.
Level · 2/3 weight
Percentile: this metric is scored against its own history, where today sits between its best and worst recorded years.
Trend · 1/3 weight
Measured from the direction and size of the change between the two most recent readings.
Volatility · diagnostic, not blended
100Measured from how much this indicator has swung period on period across its recorded history.
Data confidence and provenance
Confidence and source
How much weight to put on the reading, the mean data-confidence across the component metrics (source quality, recency and completeness).
Source
The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England
- Update frequency
- Annual
- Reliability
- high
Provenance
- Provider
- Skills for Care
- Series ID
- skills_for_care
- Frequency
- Annual
- Accessed
- 7 July 2026
Known weakness
England; a Skills for Care modelled estimate (sector body, not official statistics), and high international recruitment has suppressed recent headline vacancy rates.
Notes
Verified official value from Skills for Care (skills_for_care), accessed 2026-07-07.
Historical values
History
| Period | Value | Relative |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 4.3 | |
| 2014 | 4.8 | |
| 2015 | 5.3 | |
| 2016 | 6.2 | |
| 2017 | 7.2 | |
| 2018 | 7.4 | |
| 2019 | 7.2 | |
| 2020 | 7.3 | |
| 2021 | 7 | |
| 2022 | 10.6 | |
| 2023 | 9.9 | |
| 2024 | 8.3 | |
| 2025 | 7 | |
| 2025-26 | 6.2 |