Mapping National Adult Social Care and Care Home Data Sources in Scotland: Baseline understanding & future potential: September 2022

Context

This summary document has been prepared to provide a baseline summary of national adult social care and care home data sources in Scotland. It is intended to provide technical data users with high-level accessible information on key products, to enable and aid clarity on the availability of social care data. The document presents national social care data collections, the vast majority of which are published data sources. However, this note also provides summary information on management information sources, and identifies social care and care home flags held within other national datasets. It also identifies priority areas for development, and the potential benefits to be realised, as collated by a Scottish Government-led group which provided advice to clinicians on data, analysis and research on COVID-19 in social care settings. It is based on information from the data providers, controllers and processors involved in national data collections and the experiences of a range of academics and practitioners who have sought to use these data for public benefit.

This report was originally collated in 2021, however, with the commencement of a Scottish Government national review of care home data, the information has been updated in 2022 and is now published to provide a comprehensive background to the current evidence base. All data sources are correct as at September 2022, and may have undergone subsequent development.