EQUALITY


organisational knowledge and succession capacity. Workforce stability also matters enormously to residents. Relationships are at the heart of good care, and continuity is much easier to achieve when talented people can see a future with us. The encouraging part is that a great deal of this sits within providers’ control.


Make progression visible Career development should not depend on being spotted by the right person at the right moment. Every colleague should be able to see what the next step could be, what skills or qualifications it requires, and how they can gain them. At Elizabeth Finn Homes, we have continued


to expand apprenticeships and development opportunities because progression is not created by a policy statement. It is created by giving people real opportunities to acquire the experience, confidence and qualifications that make the next role possible. We still have more to do to make those


pathways as visible, systematic and varied as we would like. That, in itself, is an important discipline. Providers should be prepared to ask not only, ‘do we develop people?’ but, ‘could every colleague explain how progression works here?’ Move from mentoring to sponsorship The report identifies limited access to mentorship and sponsorship as a recurring barrier, particularly at more senior levels. A mentor advises you. A sponsor actively creates opportunity. They mention your name when a role, project or stretch assignment is being discussed. They put you forward. That advocacy is often informal, which is


precisely why providers should pay attention to it. If senior relationships are built through evening networking or simply who has more unstructured time with leaders, people with caring responsibilities can be excluded without anyone deliberately doing so. Mentoring programmes should take place in


26 THE CARE HOME INDUSTRY HANDBOOK 2027


paid working time and connect people to genuine opportunities. Senior leaders should also be asked a simple question: who are you sponsoring, and what are you doing to help them progress?


Design management jobs around real lives The report found that 45 per cent of women respondents identified themselves as undertaking unpaid caring responsibilities, and describes flexible working and unpaid care as the two most frequent barriers to progression. Care providers understand caring better than most. Yet we can still design management roles around an old-fashioned ‘ideal worker’: permanently available, able to stay late, travel at short notice and absorb emergencies without significant responsibilities outside work. Care is a 24-hour service and management


roles carry real operational responsibilities. Flexibility cannot mean pretending those demands do not exist. But it should mean interrogating them. Does this meeting need to be at 7.30am? Does every manager need to be physically present five days a week? Are we judging leadership capability, or visibility? If we approve flexibility and then quietly


interpret it as reduced commitment when promotions are being considered, we have changed the policy but not the culture. Make parental leave a career policy This is one area where we have acted deliberately at my care home group. In 2024 we introduced enhanced maternity and paternity leave pay. Care England cites the approach in the report, noting measurable impact on employee engagement and wellbeing, and the fact we found it both impactful and cost-effective. I am proud of that, but I would not suggest that


introducing one good policy solves the wider problem. The real test is what happens around it, and whether the culture matches the words on the page. Good parental leave helps redistribute caring


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