Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the performance of the not-for-profit adult social care sector in (a) ratings achieved through CQC inspections and (b) workforce (i) pay and (ii) turnover reported by the Skills for Care adult social care workforce dataset.

We recognise the role and value that not-for-profit providers play in delivering adult social care (ASC). As of November 2025, 8.1% of Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulated social care organisation locations are providers with a charity number. Of these locations, 89.1% are rated “Good” or “Outstanding” compared with 83.8% of other providers, of which the vast majority are for-profit. Overall, 84.3% of ASC providers are rated “Good” or “Outstanding”.

Filled posts working for independent sector employers cannot be accurately split into “private” and “voluntary”, as this information is not reported by the CQC. Estimates from the ASC workforce dataset suggests that approximately 74%, or 1,000,000, of the filled posts working for independent sector employers were in private sector establishments, which is approximately 63% of all posts, and 26%, or 345,000, were filled posts in voluntary/charity sector establishments, which is approximately 22% of all posts.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research funded Adult Social Care Research Unit is researching the impact of provider ownership type, including not-for-profit status, on care outcomes and workforce outcomes, including pay and turnover. The project will conclude in June 2026.