A career in social care offers long-term employment prospects, with opportunity for promotion and progression as well as job security.

Adult social care is one of the few sectors where jobs are increasing, offering significant numbers of long-term career opportunities in the current job market. There’s an estimated 1.49 million people working in social care, and by 2035 we’ll need to fill around 580,000 more jobs.

Somewhere in your community there’s a job that you can do to help others. If you like working with people, social care offers a worthwhile job that can turn into a rewarding, long-term career.

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.

These roles involve directly working with people who need care and support and include Activity Workers, Care Workers and Rehabilitation Workers.

These roles involve having managerial responsibility of people and include being a Team Leader of care workers or Specialist Co-ordinator who specialise in a particular field and have the responsibly to ensure staff are trained.

These roles involve supporting qualified professionals such as Housing support officers or Social care prescribers who focus on improving wellbeing.

These roles are registered with a regulated body and require a qualification such as a degree or equivalent. They may range from being a Social worker, Nurse in a care home or a Counsellor.

These roles do not often have direct patient care but are jobs that are crucial for the delivery of a service such as a Cook, Housekeeper or Driver.