As at September 2019 there were 113,300 adult social services jobs in local authorities in England (held by 109,600 people), up 0.9% or 1,000 jobs from 2018. This is the second year on year increase since reporting began in 2011 and is broadly stable since 2016.   Between 2011 and 2019 there has been a decrease of 28.9% or 46,100 local authority jobs.

Nearly half of all local authority job roles (52,500 jobs or 46.3%) were in direct care providing roles.   The Professional job group, which includes Social Workers and Occupational Therapists has remained relatively stable, currently reporting 21,100 roles. This is the only job role group to have increased since 2011, also up 1,300 jobs between 2018 and 2019.

In 2019 an estimated 3.4 million hours per week were worked by 109,600 adult social care staff within local authorities, up 25,000 hours per week since 2018.

The average age of adult social care staff in local authorities is 47.5. This is 4.3 years older when compared to the latest available equivalent for the independent sector (Skills for Care, 2019) and 4.6 years older than the NHS workforce average age.

42.2% of directly employed staff had zero sick days in the year. On average, the mean number of sickness days for staff in local authorities is 10.2 days, down 0.1 days since 2018 and 5.8 days more than the UK employment average.