An overview of our progress against this outcome during 2024 to 2025.
The public’s perception of the social care and early years workforce’s skills and professionalism has decreased slightly over the past few years. But our workforce survey shows positive signs that the workforce is having the training they need to do their job.
In the 2025 Wales Omnibus Survey:
- 65 per cent of the Welsh public say residential care workers are always skilled and professional in their work (2 per cent less than in 2023 and 2021)
- 62 per cent of the Welsh public say home care workers are always skilled and professional in their work (65 per cent in 2023 and 67 per cent in 2021)
- 67% of the Welsh public say early years and childcare workers are always skilled and professional in the work they do (same as 2023, 69 per cent in 2021 and 2020).
In our 2024 survey of the social care workforce:
- 87 per cent said they get the right training to do their job well (up 8 per cent since 2023)
- 47 per cent said they had no barriers in accessing work related training (no change from 2023)
- 40 per cent said they could speak some Welsh (5 per cent fewer than in 2023).
We have a number of initiatives and financial support available to support the social care workforce with being skilled, knowledgeable and qualified. These include:
Support the development, delivery, and implementation of qualifications, Continuous Professional Development and qualification frameworks
We held more than 20 engagement sessions with social care employers, managers, learning providers and Care Inspectorate Wales, attended by 670 people, about areas, such as the All Wales Induction Framework, Employer Assessment Route, and Level 2 and 3 qualifications.
Twenty students completed the two-year City 7 Guilds social services practitioner programme.
We ran 17 events about early years qualifications, attended by 234 early years workers and managers. We also held an early years conference in the autumn that welcomed 170 people and ran a series of spring events attended by 60 people. More than 180 people also had training on the Early years induction framework.
Essential Skills Wales
Essential Skills Wales qualifications are designed to assess and develop key skills that are necessary for life, learning and employment. We’ve developed 18 resources to support the teaching and learning of Essential Skills Wales using health and social care-related scenarios. The resources have been tested with learners and tutors from further education and work-based learning providers. The resources have been welcomed and we’ve had positive feedback social care and early years learners and those delivering the qualifications. One tutor said the resources: “are so good visually, step by step and with clear guidance they are such an improvement on what I am currently using that I enjoyed completing.”
National Occupational Standards review
National Occupational Standards (NOS) are detailed documents that set out the knowledge, skills, and understanding needed to perform a job competently. We’ve been working with our UK colleagues to review 212 NOS across Health and Social Care (HSC) and Child Care Learning and Development (CCLD). Stakeholders, including specialists, employers and managers across both sectors in Wales have contributed to the review to make sure the NOS are right for the social care and early years sectors.
Promoting and supporting apprenticeships
In 2024 to 2025, 4,224 people completed apprenticeships compared to 3,270 in 2023 to 2024 – a 31 per cent increase:
- 3,272 Health and Social Care apprenticeships
- 1,029 Children’s Care, Play, Learning and Development apprenticeships.
This shows an increasing number of social care workers and managers will meet their registration qualification requirement. Early years and childcare workers and managers will meet their National Minimum Standards qualification requirements.
Supporting Welsh language social care and early years services
We continue to look at ways to support the social care and early years workforce to learn and use Welsh at work. We’ve been working with the National Centre for Learning Welsh on Welsh language learning and have created Camau courses. The courses offer bitesize, flexible learning that focus on the Welsh words and phrases workers are most likely to need when they’re communicating with the people they support. It counts towards registered social care workers’ continuous professional development and everyone who completes it will receive a certificate.
In 2024 to 2025, 687 people were registered on the Camau course (a 30 per cent increase on last year) and 510 people completing it. The course completion rates also improved after we introduced a Welsh language tutor and peer support.
We held our first Welsh language conference on the theme of ‘Language, dignity and care’ in March 2025. The conference helped those working in social care make connections to develop their knowledge about ways of working bilingually. To support this work, we set up a Camau peer support network to share ideas and good practice, which now has 30 members.
Designing, developing and supporting the implementation of new safeguarding tools, approaches and resources
In February, we launched the Group B safeguarding training resources and we reached nearly 300 people through implementation days across the 7 regions of Wales. regional implementation days. We’ve had positive feedback about the training resource, with people telling us they’re “infinitely useful and practice-friendly”. Independent trainers have told us that having the standards has meant they can tailor their training more effectively to particular groups of practitioners.
This resource is now part of the training calendars in all seven regions in Wales, with people using the Group B resource pack to deliver their training. A multi-agency review group continues to oversee the development of the training standards and the associated resource packs, and it’s currently planning the Group C resources.
Providing national leadership to support the social care and early years and childcare sectors to be anti-discriminatory
We want to make sure social care in Wales is fair and inclusive. The Welsh Government has clear plans to tackle discrimination and promote equality. We’ve been supporting this by working on training and learning to help care workers understand how to treat people fairly and with respect. We’re also working on resources about topics such as human rights, anti-racism and LGBTQ+ inclusion. Two modules will focus on anti-racism and HIV. We’ve been working with relevant organisations and people on the content, and they’re due to be launched in 2025 to 2026.
Supporting learning with communities of practice
We’ve set up communities to support people in the sector with building networks, working together and learning from each other .These include:
- 101 members of our place-based care community (50 per cent more than last year)
- 19 members in the new models of residential care community (this is a closed group for specific roles in social care)
- 355 members in the evidence community (a 50 per cent increase on last year)
- 201 members in the Responsible Individuals community (a 30 per cent increase on last year’s membership).
Our four communities continued to grow, offering valuable learning and support across social care. We want the communities to be a secure place for members, where they feel safe exploring topics that are important to them. With the community behind them, members know they can share ideas, ask questions and get support.
One community member said: “[T]he great thing about this community is it gives us the time and space, we wouldn't usually get, to think, reflect and discuss with our peers".