Skills for Care making a difference with ASC-WDS data
‘Making a difference with data’ campaign this month highlights how data shapes policy and supports positive change in adult social care
Data is vital to social care. That’s why the strategic workforce development and planning body Skills for Care is leading a campaign all through October on the importance of maintaining high-quality data. The ‘Making a difference with data’ campaign also details the way in which employers can contribute to the wider Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS).
Photo by Markus Spiske
More than 20,000 organisations across the adult social care sector already contribute to ASC-WDS, which provides the most complete and extensive picture of the related workforce in England. That’s why the government and other leading stakeholders in social care use ASC-WDS to make key decisions on the future of the sector. Skills for Care also uses ASC-WDS as the basis for its annual report on the state of the sector and workforce.
But there are more immediate benefits to employers who use ASC-WDS. They can use the system to safely store staff records in a way that supports activities such as workforce planning and managing training. What’s more, with ASC-WDS they can benchmark their organisation against their peers by key workforce metrics.
To encourage more organisations to use ASC-WDS, the ‘Making a difference’ campaign running this month will provide resources, case studies and insight to show such benefits to employers with tips on how to submit and maintain high quality data. The campaign will run across the Skills for Change website, social media and other communications channels using the tag #DataDrivesChange. There will also be related events.
Dave Griffiths, Programme Head – Analysis at Skills for Care, says: ‘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 #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.’
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