Your career map in care: a guide to the Care Workforce Pathway

"Where can this job take me?" It is one of the questions I hear most often from people starting out in care, and for years the honest answer was: it depends on your employer.

That is changing. The Care Workforce Pathway now sets out 18 role categories across adult social care, with the knowledge, skills and learning for each. For the first time, there is a national map of a career in care.

What is the Care Workforce Pathway?

It is a national career structure published by the Department of Health and Social Care and developed with Skills for Care. The first role categories came out in 2024 and 2025. Part 3, published in July 2026, added ten more, taking the total from 8 to 18 and covering around 1.5 million workers.

For each role, the pathway describes:

• Values: seven shared values for everyone in care, such as being kind, compassionate and empathetic, and seeing the whole person.
• Behaviours: how those values look in daily practice.
• Knowledge and skills: what you need to understand and be able to do.
• Areas of practice and learning: specialisms such as dementia care, with suggested learning.

The direct care roles, step by step

These are the roles that work directly with people who draw on care:

1. New to care: your first role, usually for up to 12 months.
2. Care or support worker: an established worker with growing skills.
3. Activity co-ordinator: helps people lead full and meaningful lives.
4. Enhanced care worker: carries out delegated healthcare tasks or gives condition-specific support.
5. Care technologist: uses technology to support independence and reduce risk.
6. Personal assistant: supports one person to live independently, usually at home.
7. Supervisor or leader: leads a team with some staff management.
8. Practice leader: develops a specialism and helps others develop theirs.
9. Deputy manager: manages staff and helps run the service.
10. Registered manager: runs the service and meets legal and regulatory duties.
11. Nominated individual: provides senior governance and oversight.

Seven supporting role categories sit alongside these, including learning and development, quality assurance, catering, domestic and maintenance.

Progression isn't only upwards

One of the pathway's strengths is that it recognises growth within a role. You don't have to become a manager to progress. You might become the person your team turns to for dementia care, end of life care or medication. The practice leader and enhanced care worker roles exist for exactly that.

The pathway also links to routes beyond social care, including nursing, social work and other registered professions. Every course you complete builds what the guidance calls a "portable portfolio" that goes with you from job to job.

The gaps worth knowing about

The pathway is a big step, but it is not perfect. Adoption is voluntary, and The Care Workers' Charity has called for it to be backed in law and tied to pay. It also points out that the widely used "senior care worker" title has no category of its own. And care workers with five or more years' experience earn just 12p an hour more than new starters.

That is why the link to the Fair Pay Agreement matters. Recognised roles should carry recognised pay.

How to use the pathway today

If you are new to care:

1. Complete your Care Certificate. It is the foundation for every role on the pathway.
2. Find your role category and read its knowledge and skills list.
3. Ask your manager which specialism your service needs most.

If you are a manager:

1. Map every job title in your service to a pathway category.
2. Use the role descriptions in supervision and appraisals.
3. Check the Learning and Development Support Scheme, which has up to £10 million for eligible training in 2026–27.