Better Careers for Better Care

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Programme Overview

The Rayne Foundation believes – and evidence shows(1) – that providing better career and professional development opportunities for people working in care will result in better care for those who need it most.  The Foundation has funded organisations supporting care for people in later life since its founding in 1965 and for many years, improved quality of life for older people and their carers has been a priority funding area.

In response to the complex and systemic challenges facing the care of people in later life, the Foundation is running a proactive funding programme focused on workforce development within social care – Better Careers for Better Care.  This follows several years exploring how the Foundation’s resources can be used to have the greatest positive impact for people in later life and their carers.

In alignment with the Foundation’s values of being trusting, collaborative, creative and rigorous, the application and assessment process for propsals for funding is being supported by External Advisors bringing lived, learned and professional expertise to support our decision-making.

First open call for Expressions of Interest

Through our discussions with leaders in the social care sector, we identified the following funding priorities which framed the first open call:

  • Recognising, acknowledging, and championing the value and skills of care workers.
  • Sustainable recruitment into the social care workforce.
  • Design and delivery of career progression opportunities for staff across the social care workforce, and the support needed to access them.
  • Development of social care leaders.
  • Empowering and enabling social care leaders to contribute to strategy and policy development in health and social care.
  • Co-production at the local, regional and/or national level of career development opportunities and/or workforce development plans.
  • Establishing inclusive, learning cultures within care in later life, and evidencing the positive impact on both the workforce and the quality of care for older people.
  • Connecting care provision for people in later life with the wider community to support recruitment and retention within the social care workforce

The Foundation’s board designated £2 million to design and deliver the first iteration of the programme focused initially on England with an ambition to fund across all four nations in the future. We ran the open call for Expressions of Interest (EOI) between November 2023 and January 2024 and received 48 EOIs.

We were deeply impressed by the quality of work going on across England, the passion for and commitment to improving the experience of care workers and people drawing on care, and the scale of ambition to transform workforce development and career progression within adult social care. Almost a third of the EOIs came from partnerships led by statutory bodies including Local Authorities, NHS Trusts, and Integrated Care Boards. There was a good geographical spread with particularly strong representation from Northeast and Eastern England.

We made eight grants through the first round of funding, allocating the full £2 million pot. Two of the funded programes are national in scope, and six are based in a specific geography. Read this blog for more information on the first five grants agreed, and this blog on the further three grants agreed. Following the initial focus on England, two further grants were awarded in 2025, one in Wales and one in Scotland. Learn more about these grants in this blog. These ten grant partners make up an engaged and supportive Community of Practice.

Second open call for Expressions of Interest

Being alongside grant partners as their programmes of work have rolled out has taught us a huge amount and helped shape the next phase of the programme.

Through our discussions, the following issues have been raised repeatedly:

  • Complexity and variety of commissioning and procurement arrangements, provision, and the number of stakeholders involved.
  • Hierarchical, transactional, and/or competitive relationships within and between organisations and/or parts of the system.
  • Current opportunities and challenges to influence national policy and reform.

In response, we launched a further open call in February 2026 with an increased focus on the cultures of trust, respect and collaboration that enable and embed career development opportunities for care workers. We will make up to six grants between £60,000 and £150,000 for programmes of work that will be delivered within a 24-month timeframe. The open call is now closed. 

For full application and assessment guidance, visit this webpage.

Impact Evaluation

We have an external learning partner to support us to understand the impact of the funding and how to create long term change in adult social care. Bean Research has fed into the design and delivery of both funding calls, and has worked with the staff team, Assessment Panel and current grant partners to create a framework to capture impact across the funded programmes of work.

The Better Careers for Better Care First Year Learning Report is now available to download and share, capturing the key achievements and insights from the first year of funded programmes.

Sector engagement

Colleagues from across adult social care have been very supportive of the Foundation’s investment into the sector, as well as the collaborative grant-making process that prioritises learning. Many have been keen to remain engaged regardless of their success in receiving funding, and we have shared our learning so far through a series of blogs:

In January, we hosted a series of webinars under the umbrella theme of ‘Building Trust, Respect and Collaboration in Adult Social Care’ to share the work of grant partners in the following areas:

We will continue to share learning and best practice with the wider sector as the programme rolls out through blogs and events.

Through the programme we have built strong relationships with sector leaders and are grateful for their continued support with the development of the programme. We are also convening relationships with funders with similar priorities, to identify opportunities for collaborative funding into the sector.

To keep updated with blogs and events, please email Holly Baine, Programme Development Lead – hbaine@raynefoundation.org.uk

1. Skills for Care Rapid Evidence Assessment: adult social care and factors associated with productivity and work performance, published 2017;  Towers A, Smith N, Allan S, Vadean F, Collins G, Rand S, et al. Care home residents’ quality of life and its association with CQC ratings and workforce issues: the MiCareHQ mixed-methods study. Health Serv Deliv Res 2021;9(19)

“The application process was one of the most collaborative and supportive we’ve experienced. In contrast to other funders it never felt like we were having to second guess criteria – the process was very open and transparent and the experience was one of trying to create the best project ‘with’ the Rayne Foundation.”

Grantee

The Rayne Trust
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