We work with social care data, including social services and safeguarding data, to produce data sets that are used to monitor spending and quality of care and plan and provide services.

Social care data is collected by councils responsible for adult social care through council administration systems. This data is submitted to us by the 152 councils with adult social services responsibilities in England. It is used to track client journeys through the social care system so they can be assessed locally and nationally across England.

Social care data collections cover:

• social services activity
• safeguarding adults
• the Mental Health Act
• the Mental Capacity Act
• surveys of those in receipt of care and their carers
• an adult social care finance return
• summaries of the registers of people who are blind and partially sighted
• a social care minimum data set

Most of the national social care data collections are aggregate (counts of service users, carers, and events), not individual records. The social care data we collect populates the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF). This measures how well the care and support services achieve the outcomes that matter most to people.

The data we collect is used by local authorities to:

• support service planning and improvement
• benchmark against peers
• monitor performance (including against their legal requirements)
• provide local accountability.