How Glassmoon Services is shaping the future with the Care Workforce Pathway

We hear from Glassmoon Services about their involvement as one of the Early Adopters of the Care Workforce Pathway.

At Glassmoon Services, everything we do is rooted in our commitment to Live What Matters for the people we support and for the people who make that care and support possible.

Our work is human, it’s about connection, belonging, courage, and supporting people to live the lives they choose. That’s why we were proud to be among the first Early Adopters of the Care Workforce Pathway a national framework to professionalise social care, create transparent career progression, and bring parity across sectors.

Starting the journey: more than a framework

From the moment we engaged with the Care Workforce Pathway, we knew it was an opportunity to reimagine how we attract, support, develop, and retain our colleagues. What started with mapping new to care and care or support workers quickly became a deeper project of cultural alignment. Looking at everything we do, policies, procedures, supervision and all colleague support mechanisms. As our Head of Learning, Mark Kite, put it:

Making it Glassmoon

We’ve never believed that people are defined by their job titles. So, we replaced traditional job descriptions with role purpose documents, live, reflective documents that speak to what someone wants to achieve in their role, not just what they do.

This person-led approach made integrating the Care Workforce Pathway a natural next step. But as we began mapping, it became clear that our specialist work with autistic young adults didn’t sit neatly within existing role categories. As an Early Adopter trialling and testing the Pathway, we were able to share this feedback and influence the development and creation of a role category for enhanced care workers. This was a meaningful step forward for recognising support workers that have additional specialist social care responsibilities and learning that they must undertake for their role.

Shaping the sector: driving equity with the NHS

Social care has long operated in the shadow of the NHS. But we believe that care professionals deserve the same respect, recognition, and progression pathways as their healthcare counterparts.

The Care Workforce Pathway is helping to bridge that divide. By aligning our internal structures with NHS equivalents, we’re helping bring parity and pride back to social care. As Mark shared:

When it came to the pre-implementation stage of the Pathway, we invited colleagues at all levels: support workers, senior support workers, team leaders, and registered managers to the table. Through focus groups and co-creation sessions, reflective feedback, and peer learning, we shaped something that belonged to us all and created how we work today

Many of the insights our teams shared went on to inform national role definitions, proof that when you listen, people engage, and they lead.

Real-world impact: from policy to practice

The changes we’ve seen already across Glassmoon Services include:

Leadership and mentorship:
We’ve introduced revised structured pathways, enabling experienced team members to become confident mentors and learning and development champions. They support learning, training, nurture, inspire, and pass on our values in action.

Supporting personal growth and practice:
Our refreshed 1:1 supervision model is about meaning, wellbeing and purpose driven conversations. Career development is now a fully integrated process enabling all colleagues to embrace possibilities and unlock potential.

Progression with purpose:
Our Apprenticeship applications have risen by 70%. Learning and career advancement and development is in high demand. Colleagues are shadowing, gaining new skills, and charting their own growth journeys from their first shift to the possibilities of future leadership.

Innovative roles:
The Pathway has helped us develop unique positions like our Lead Quality of Life Practitioner, which was our first practice leader role category, recently highlighted by Skills for Care as a case study. Roles like this help embed quality, purpose, and creativity into every part of our care and support. This has also, spurred our curiosity for what is possible for other roles.

External recognition:
We’ve been able to share our learning by presenting our work to the Minister of State for Health and Social Care through a showcase with other pioneering Early Adopters. We’ve been named on the Great Place to Work® 2025 for “Development” List, reflecting how deeply our team values this growth culture. Proud to Care Cornwall also recognised us for our workforce development work at the end of 2024.

Lessons learned: what we’d say to others

If you’re thinking about adopting the Care Workforce Pathway, here’s what we’ve learned:

• Don’t rush it. It’s a deep process, not a quick fix.
• Be courageous. Let your data challenge you and your assumptions.
• Look at everything you do and map it all.
• Involve everyone. The best insights come from the people living the work every day. This enables total ownership for what we do.
• Make it meaningful. A framework is just the start. What you build with it is what counts.

Looking ahead: keeping momentum

As the Care Workforce Pathway evolves, so will we. Mark Kite, our Head of Learning, is already anticipating and integrating the next phase of the Pathway into learning systems, recruitment, and workforce planning.

A pathway with purpose

Adopting the Care Workforce Pathway has enabled us to explore how we compared to other sectors such as the NHS. We have developed other ways to support our colleagues, invest in their future, and make sure everyone at Glassmoon Services feels heard, supported, and set up to thrive and be their best self.

Would we do it again?

In a heartbeat. This has been the start of a great impactful journey that is just at the beginning. We will continue to grow and develop and iterate with the Pathway and have hopefully been able to support other social care providers start theirs.

Find out more about the Care Workforce Pathway.

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