Celebrating the Essential Work of our Social Care Workforce
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Professional Care Workers’ Week 2024, organised by the Care Workers’ Charity, marks the vital services care workers provide to ensure people who access social care continue to live their best lives. Carolyn Nice, Director of Adults, Health and Wellbeing at Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, discusses how she got into social care work, the importance of the Skills for Care Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care in England and how she thinks the work of social workers and carers can be valued.
The word “professional” is important to me, because we don’t always value or recognise our care workers as professionals – despite the unique set of skills and knowledge they bring to their roles. In fact, this ‘dismissal’ of my role as a carer motivated me to progress my own career in social care and illustrates the opportunities this profession has to offer, no matter where you start.
I started my career (back at the end of the 90s) as a cleaner and then became a carer for older people in a residential care home. I moved on to work as an NHS healthcare assistant in a long-stay hospital for adults with severe learning disabilities, which I loved. During this time, I met a social worker who dismissed the value of carers and the knowledge and skills they require to improve the lives of the people they work with.
At the same time, I was reminded of the importance of social care when the Labour Government launched Valuing People in 2001, which was about improving life chances for people with learning disabilities. It really spoke to me and I decided to train as a social worker to support people to live “gloriously ordinary lives.” I went back to college, completed an access course to enable me to study for a BA/ DIPSW in Social Work and qualified in 2002.
My first social work post was with an older person’s assessment team and my first management role was in a multidisciplinary team working with adults with physical disabilities in Northeast Derbyshire. I became a Group Manager with responsibilities for the Bolsover area and the Hospital Discharge Teams that covered Derbyshire.
In 2015, I went to work as an Area Manager in Lincolnshire covering Adult Frailty and Long-Term conditions within the County. I became an Assistant Director in 2017 and moved to Doncaster in 2020 during the middle of Covid which was a challenge. I became DASS of Stockton on Tees Council in July 2023 – and I’m loving the role.
Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to undertake new training to broaden my knowledge and skills and have worked with people who have pushed and challenged me. Even on the worst days, I still love my job.
I’m still completely dedicated to ensuring the adult social care workforce is valued for the incredible contribution its employees make to people’s lives. We know social care needs are evolving with rising numbers of people needing more complex types of care and that the workforce needs to grow to meet this challenge. According to Skills for Care, there will be more than half a million (540,000) posts by 2040. Its Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care in England is a step in the right direction. It aims to improve the quality of roles in adult social care as well as recruit and retain people with the skills, knowledge and values to provide the best care.
The strategy has been developed in partnership with organisations representing care workers across the sector, as well as people with lived experience. Work has been ongoing with the Minister for Care, Stephen Kinnock to understand what the strategy means and how we can continue to create the support our workforce needs and deserves.
Of course, care work is often low paid, but we are committed to valuing care workers properly by campaigning for improved pay and conditions. We look forward to working with the Government on its Fair Pay Agreement for social care. While the future of adult social care is going to be challenging and always has been, what we have is a workforce that wants to do their best for the people they work alongside. We have an army of committed and dedicated workers at every level of social care and we need to ensure we can value, celebrate and support these people to continue to progress and develop within this great profession.
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