This level of continuous professional development supports good practice in relation to the following:
- Governance.
- DoH Social Care Workforce Strategy 2025-2035
- HSC Collective Leadership Strategy.
- NHS Healthcare Leadership Model.
- DoH Learning and Improvement Strategy.
- Service and/or strategic accountability.
- Resource management.
- Quality assurance.
- Organisational and workforce development.
- Other professional learning and development/training.
If you are a registered manager you are required to have completed a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care (Adult Management) or Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care (Adult Residential Management) to meet the Department of Health’s Minimum Standards requirements if you do not already hold a social work, nursing or an allied health professional qualification. (See qualifications pathway for more information).
At this stage in your career, you are probably managing and leading social care services and social care practitioners. You will be responsible for the services and staff that you manage and supporting the achievement of best outcomes, upholding standards and delivering safe and effective services.
The Social Care Council requires all social care practitioners including social care managers to undertake continuous learning and development throughout your careers to evidence you are meeting your Standards of Conduct and Practice for Social Care Workers as follows:
- Standards of Conduct 6 – As a social care worker, you must be accountable for the quality of your work and take responsibility for maintaining and improving your knowledge and skills.
- Standard of Practice 6 – As a social care worker, you must develop yourself as a social care worker.
This learning and development is essential in building your confidence and professional practice as a social care practitioner and it is called Post Registration Training and Learning (PRTL). You are required to complete 90 hours of learning and development in each registration period and be able to provide evidence of this. A registration period is three years for social care managers.
See RQIA Training Guidance in Relevant Resources for further training guidance information specific to your service.
Relevant Resources
Use this resource library to find documents that will help you with your career development.
Supporting your Continuous Learning and Development Journey
The Learning Zone has been developed to support social care practitioners continuous learning and development journeys and career pathways.
You will find a section specifically to support social care practitioners providing you with access to relevant information and guidance to support you from when you enter the sector and become established in your role to help to develop your knowledge, skills, competence and capabilities and become self-regulated learners.
As well as the above information and guidance, the Learning Zone provides free access to a Learning Resource Library. This is a library of accessible free learning resources covering a wide range of relevant topics and consistent messaging on standards, values and best practice. These resources have been designed in partnership with the sector and key stakeholders to supplement and complement the training provided by employers to:
- support you to better retain key knowledge and skills.
- learn at a time and pace that suits you best.
- support you to develop your knowledge and skills and take responsibility for your learning and development, and/or
- help you reflect on your learning and provide evidence of your learning by completing reflective learning questions that are built into to the digital resources which can be used to evidence your 90 hours of continuous learning and development/PRTL.