Care City Welcomes Rayne Foundation’s First-Year Learning Report
We’re proud to feature in the Rayne Foundation’s new national report and to share how our work is helping shape better careers in social care.
We are delighted to see the publication of the Rayne Foundation’s Better Careers for Better Care First-Year Learning Report, which highlights the early impact of an ambitious, UK-wide programme to improve careers, skills and opportunities in adult social care. The report showcases the difference being made for more than 480 care workers and over 120 care providers engaged so far, and we are proud that our work features strongly within this progress.
Our contribution to building better careers in social care
Care City and Jo Barter Associates are working together to test new, scalable pathways into clinical and allied health roles within social care, embedding Nursing Associates and AHP Assistants directly into care settings. Our aim is simple but transformational: to create new roles that genuinely open progression opportunities for care workers, while supporting providers to deliver more preventative, proactive care through strengthened links with other services.
The report highlights the early achievements of this work, including the recruitment of apprentices into new integrated roles and the development of training, supervision and governance models that can be adopted more widely across the UK. One apprentice described the programme as “a genuine opportunity to progress towards becoming an Occupational Therapist, an avenue that would not otherwise have been available.”
Strengthening integration between health and social care
A core ambition of the Rayne programme is to deepen collaboration across health and social care. Our work is already demonstrating what this can look like in practice. By developing new roles in care that deliver nursing and AHP services, supported by NHS delegation and clinical supervision, we are helping to level the playing field between sectors and creating opportunities for social care staff to develop advanced skills while working alongside health colleagues. The report recognises this as an important step towards social care being seen, and treated, as an equal partner in the wider system.
Part of a growing movement for change
The Learning Report makes clear that the programme is already generating system-wide momentum. Across all partners:
- 480 care workers have accessed new training and development.
- 27 apprenticeships have been launched to widen progression routes.
- Providers are reporting improved confidence, leadership capacity and learning cultures.
- New models, such as delegated healthcare, outcomes-based homecare and place-based recruitment, are reshaping local
Looking ahead
The report outlines a bold programme of continued investment, research and collaboration across England, Scotland and Wales, including a new open call in 2026 focused on building cultures of collaboration. We look forward to contributing our insight, evidence and learning as this work evolves, ensuring that the innovation developed in our region continues to inform and inspire approaches nationally.
The national importance of this work
This programme also shines a light on something we see every day: across the country there are pockets of remarkable innovation happening within the social care workforce. The Rayne Foundation is bringing these approaches together, creating the space, credibility and structure for shared learning across England, Scotland and Wales. The strength of this programme lies in its collective impact: acknowledging and elevating what is already working, connecting partners who might not otherwise meet, and enabling us to collaborate rather than innovate in isolation. Real, sustainable change in adult social care will only happen if we work together, share openly and build on each other’s successes and Rayne is playing a vital role in making that collaboration possible.
