How the care workforce pathway is creating better social care leaders
09 Jun 2025
3 min read
Natalie Spinks, Programme Head - Care Workforce Pathway, at Skills for Care talks about the Care Workforce Pathway and how it’s helping us develop better leaders.
The Care Workforce Pathway launched in January 2024 and is a comprehensive framework designed to clearly define the requirements for staff wanting to progress in adult social care. It is the first time the care sector has seen a universal career structure setting out the knowledge, skills, values and behaviours required to deliver high-quality, personalised care and support.
Upon launching, the Pathway covered four role categories:
Four further categories were added in April 2025:
There are multiple role categories included within the Pathway that outline leadership skill development, such as the registered manager, practice leader and deputy manager, and these can be explored by using their corresponding skills assessments. However, it’s important to recognise that it isn’t just through development of those seeking formal leadership positions that the Pathway is helping develop leaders. The Care Workforce Pathway is supported by a suite of resources and tools to enable staff to have engaging and meaningful conversations around career progression and skills development, in addition to enabling them to take control of their career trajectory through learning and development.
Our current campaign, titled ‘Everyday leadership’, focuses on promoting the ability of staff to take ownership of their roles and take steps to improve themselves and their organisation where possible. Empowerment of the workforce is perhaps one of the biggest advantages of the Care Workforce Pathway and its various resources. The Pathway acts as an ideal tool to support staff in taking control of their own development by providing clarity around routes of progression, required knowledge and skills and desirable traits.
One such resource is the career conversations toolkit. This practical resource offers a step-by-step guide to holding meaningful career conversations, helping managers structure discussions, offer constructive feedback, and align development plans with each team member’s professional aspirations. It supports leaders in fulfilling their role as mentors, providing clarity around progression and guiding staff towards long-term growth in the sector. These conversations also create space for team members to take ownership of their development and, if they choose to, take decisive steps towards progression. We covered some great examples of Care Workforce Pathway early adopters who were able to do this in a previous blog and some of our case studies.
The Pathway also provides a valuable resource in the strength match workbook, a tool that’s used to understand strengths and motivations of care staff. This handy self-discovery guide helps people discover what they’re good at, how to bring more of ‘who they are’ to work, increase their impact in the workplace, and play to their strengths to perform better in their role. It can be used by managers themselves to discover their preference in leadership style as well as staff who want to understand how they can utilise their best attributes to advance in their careers and achieve their goals.
Finally, the Pathway acts as an excellent tool for succession planning in any social care provider. We know that in many leadership positions, such as registered managers, the demographic is ageing towards retirement. By creating an accessible and user-friendly route towards more senior positions and better leadership capabilities, the Pathway can help organisations ensure that the next generation of leaders are being created.
We want the Care Workforce Pathway to help shift care cultures towards a focus on continuous improvement, which can be one of the biggest challenges that many social care organisations face. It can be difficult to encourage managers and staff to be proactive when their jobs are as emotionally and physically challenging as social care often is. The Care Workforce Pathway can help to alleviate some of this pressure by facilitating great conversations and providing the resources needed for people at all levels to take control of their career and make informed decisions about their development.
Make sure to visit our ‘Everyday leadership’ campaign landing page for more information on developing as a leader. Visit our adopting the Care Workforce Pathway page to understand how you can start using the Pathway today.
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