What good looks like in the retention of regulated professionals
This hub shares what we know works to help regulated professionals stay, grow and thrive in adult social care, drawing on evidence and real practice.
Introduction and overview
Retention of regulated professionals in adult social care is a national priority. High vacancy rates, early career attrition and increasing complexity of practice are affecting continuity, quality and employee wellbeing across services.
National data, sector research and co-production with practitioners affirms that retention is not driven by a single intervention. Instead, it depends on a number of conditions that support people to stay, grow and thrive in their roles. This hub identifies six evidence-informed drivers of retention and shows how they can be nurtured across the employee journey, from recruitment and induction through to career development and leadership.
The resource is designed to support workforce leads, managers and senior leaders to make evidence-informed, practical improvements that strengthen professional identity, belonging and sustainability of regulated professionals in adult social care.
What this hub is for
This hub supports local authorities, and partners working with them, to improve retention of regulated professionals working in adult social care, including social workers, occupational therapists, nurses and allied health professionals.
The resource has been developed through co-production with over 60 regulated professionals, alongside workforce leads and partners. It brings together:
evidence from national policy, workforce data and research
learning from co-production with practitioners and leaders
case studies showing what good looks like in practice
practical tools that can be used in real-world settings.
All content is evidence-informed, practitioner-led and grounded in practice. The emphasis throughout is on learning from what works and supporting local adaptation.
You do not need to read this resource from start to finish. You may choose to explore one driver of retention in depth, dip into a case study, or select a practical tool to use in supervision, team discussion or workforce planning.
The six drivers of retention
This hub is organised around six drivers of retention that emerge consistently from research, national frameworks and practitioner experience. They are interconnected and work best when considered together. They are:
leadership and management
belonging and inclusion
professional growth and career development
wellbeing and psychological safety
flexibility and autonomy
recognition and feeling valued.
The order of the drivers does not imply priority. They are introduced here to provide an overview. Each driver is explored in depth in the next section, including:
a clear definition grounded in evidence
case studies and shorter practice examples showing how the drivers are applied in real settings
practical tools aligned to each driver that can be used at individual, team or organisational level to support retention.
How to use this hub
You can use this hub in different ways depending on your role, priorities and time available. It can be used as:
a strategic reference for workforce planning and development
to support team discussions, supervision or away days
to inform recruitment, induction and early career support
to identify small changes that can make a meaningful difference.
Many tools can be used in 15 to 45 minute sessions, while others support half-day workshops or longer development activity. Tools can be used online or in person.
You do not need to start from scratch. Many of the approaches described build on things organisations already do well, making them more intentional, joined up and sustainable.
What we already know about retention
This section brings together national evidence and practitioner insight to explain why retention matters and what makes the biggest difference. It sets out the shared evidence base and practitioner insight that underpins the resource. The following section shares practical examples and tools to use to support retention.
Retention of regulated professionals in adult social care is a national challenge with local consequences. High turnover affects continuity, quality of decision-making and outcomes, staff wellbeing and organisational memory. It also places additional pressure on remaining staff and increases reliance on agency workers, which is costly.
Evidence consistently shows that retention is shaped less by individual resilience and more by organisational conditions. These include workload, professional identity, quality of supervision, leadership culture, opportunities to grow and whether people feel valued, included and listened to.
Retention is therefore not the result of a single intervention. It is the cumulative effect of everyday relationships, systems and leadership behaviours impacting across the whole employment journey.
Evidence from multiple sources affirms that retention is shaped by people’s day-to-day experience of work. Factors such as supportive leadership, manageable workloads, opportunities for professional growth, psychological safety and a sense of belonging all play a significant role in whether people stay in an organisation.
Early career stages are a particularly high-risk period for people leaving. Research and practitioner insight highlight that targeted support in the first months and years of employment can make a significant difference to longer-term retention, confidence and professional identity.
There emerges a consistent set of factors that influence whether regulated professionals stay in adult social care roles. These include:
early experiences of induction, supervision and team support
clarity of role and professional identity
access to learning, progression and career pathways
leadership visibility and psychological safety
manageable workloads and realistic expectations
practical and meaningful wellbeing support
inclusive cultures where people feel they belong and can speak up.
Workforce strategies increasingly recognise that retention begins at recruitment and continues through early career support, mid-career development and later-career sustainability. Fragmented or short-term approaches are less effective than those that are values-led and embedded.
Retention improves when organisations invest in:
inclusive and values-based recruitment
clear and achievable career pathways
meaningful supervision and reflective space
recognition of professional contribution
conditions that support a positive work life balance and employee experience.
These themes are consistent across professions and organisations. The sections that follow show how organisations have translated these conditions into everyday practice.
Through co-development workshops, small group and one to one discussions, and case study contributions, practitioners across social work, occupational therapy, nursing and allied health roles described similar experiences.
People stay when:
they feel trusted and supported in complex decision-making
supervision is reflective, consistent and meaningful
learning is relevant to real practice pressures
leaders understand the emotional nature of the role
progression feels possible without leaving practice
difference is respected rather than managed.
People leave when everyday pressures become normalised, when support is inconsistent, or when they feel invisible within their organisation.
These themes were consistent across geography, profession and career stage, although how they were addressed varied between organisations.
Drawing together the evidence, practitioner insight and case study learning, six interconnected drivers consistently emerged as shaping retention. These drivers are not standalone themes, they interact and reinforce one another. They are:
leadership that is visible, values-led and relational
belonging and inclusion in teams and organisations
professional growth and development across career stages
wellbeing that is built into practice, not added on
flexibility in roles, pathways and ways of working
recognition of contribution, expertise and impact.
These drivers provide the organising framework for the hub. Each case study and tool show how one or more of these drivers can be strengthened in practice.
Retention of regulated professionals in adult social care is shaped by a small number of interconnected and well-evidenced conditions. National workforce data, sector research and practitioner consultation consistently show that people are more likely to stay where they feel supported, valued, able to grow, and confident that their work has purpose and impact.
Across adult social care, turnover is rarely caused by a single issue. Practitioners describe a cumulative effect of leadership behaviour, workload pressure, inclusion, development opportunities and how safe it feels to speak up or ask for support. Where these conditions are weak or inconsistent, people disengage and eventually leave. Where they are aligned and embedded into everyday practice, people stay.
The PCH retention hub is structured around six drivers of retention. These are:
Leadership
Belonging
Professional growth
Wellbeing
Flexibility
Recognition
These drivers reflect national evidence, established workforce frameworks and what practitioners told us during co-development of the resource. They are not standalone interventions. They reinforce one another and work best when addressed together. Strengthening one often supports progress in others.
Each driver is structured in the same way:
what this means - the driver in practice
why this driver matters for retention - the evidence and rationale
what good looks like - observable features
what this driver enables - how the driver supports everyday practice
how this driver shows up in practice - links to real examples
case studies and tools - application in different contexts.
The drivers are designed for practical application. Supervision and team learning are key opportunities to shape retention in practice. You may wish to:
use one driver as a team focus for a quarter
use case studies to prompt reflective discussion
introduce one or two linked tools into supervision or appraisal
revisit drivers during service redesign or workforce planning.
They are intended to support informed local decision-making rather than prescribe a single model of good practice.
