Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the current levels of unmet need and staff vacancies in social care.

According to Skills for Care’s monthly tracking data, the overall vacancy rate in independent adult social care providers was 11.2% in October 2022.

It is difficult to assess the current levels of unmet need in Adult Social Care. We are taking action to address national data gaps with 54 local authorities contributing to our new Client-Level Data collection which for the first time collects data about the people who draw on care and support as well as unpaid carers. This will be mandatory for all local authorities from April.