Social Care

Social care is about supporting people to maintain their independence, dignity and control. This includes providing personal and practical support to help people live their lives.

Social care workers could be supporting someone with a range of disabilities, dementia or mental health conditions. They could be working in a care home, in the local community or from someone’s home.

There are lots of different roles in social care depending on what you want to do, who you want to work with and where you’d like to work. Click here for more information about how you can start your career in social care

There are 5 broad categories of job roles in Social Care

• Direct care roles (e.g. personal assistant, rehabilitation worker, advocacy support) • Management roles (e.g. supervisor, registered manager, specialist co-ordinator • Social care support roles (e.g. social care prescriber, HR, finance) • Regulated professional roles (e.g. social worker, occupational therapist, nurse) • Ancillary roles (e.g. cook, driver, maintenance)

For the full range of roles, please visit the Skills for Care website

Below are some examples of career development pathways in social care

Social Work

Occupational Therapy

For further information about career progression pathways in social care, please view this Skills for Care toolkit

Social Care Links

It is possible to enter at any level with the appropriate employment, qualifications, skills &/or experience. The above illustrations are generic and not exhaustive, details on other careers can be found on the following websites:

Careers information

Skills for Care ‘Think Careers’
A question of care – assess whether a career in care is right for you
Values based recruitment

Social Care Vacancies:

Berkshire Opportunities
Department of Health and Social Care
Slough Borough Council Personal Assistant roles
Optalis (Bracknell and Wokingham)
Surrey (includes Surrey Heartlands)