Matthew Baker and Charlee Leach took a bold decision to enter the care sector two years ago, and haven’t looked back.

They signed up to the first Care Academi course set up by Carmarthenshire Council and have done a range placements and gained qualifications – all while earning a wage.

Councils have a statutory duty to provide or commission social care and to safeguard children. Recruiting and retaining care staff and qualified social workers can be very problematic – this at a time of challenging local authority budgets, an ageing population, and young and old people’s often increasingly complex needs.

Care lacks the profile and perhaps prestige of working in the NHS, but the NHS relies on a functioning care sector. Carmarthenshire’s Care Academi is enabling the council to grow its own workforce, and those who complete the programme by doing a degree in social work or a leadership and management course are expected to stay on with the council for at least three years.

Matthew, 23, of Llanelli, had started work as a town planner after finishing university when he switched career. “I didn’t enjoy it,” he said of town planning. “There wasn’t much public interaction. It wasn’t for me.”

Quite a lot of his family worked in social care, and Matthew said he initially thought it would be something to tide him over.

“I fell in love with it,” he said. “You see the change you are making. In a lot of jobs I think you don’t.”

Since the course started in October 2022 Matthew has done four placements and is now on his fifth. The first was at a rehabilitation unit where elderly people, for example, were helped back to independence after having a fall. He also worked at a Flying Start nursery for 2 to 3-year-olds.

“I didn’t think I wanted to work with children, but I enjoyed it,” he said.

His long-term placement was in learning disability, and he’s due to start a master’s degree in social work in September, with the fees funded by the council.

Matthew said he believed there was still a stigma attached to working in care, but that when he told people what he was doing the reaction was fairly positive. He added: “I don’t know what I’d be doing without this.”

His advice to those who might be interested in applying to the Care Academi at some point? “I just think give it a go,” he said.

“I didn’t know whether I would enjoy it. I didn’t know if I was going to be good at it. As you go through the placements you gain a lot of confidence.”

He added that seeing the impact of his contributions was rewarding. “Someone might have left hospital or had a fall, they’re confused, and after 9 or 10 weeks they’re more or less back to their old selves,” he said.

Care Academi trainees begin by studying a level two qualification in health and social care (adults) or a level three qualification (children and young people). All courses and qualifications – and up to 10 driving lessons – are paid for, but if recruits don’t want to progress any further at key milestones the council said it will help them look for a full-time job.

Assessing the trainees is Alex Swales, of Pembrokeshire College, who has a qualification in health and social care management. “They do up to six months in the classroom, where I deliver the knowledge underpinning the sector – the principles, values, codes of conduct – and they get tested,” he said.

“During that time they also dip in out of placements. Then they’re really onto the practical side. I enjoy doing it. They might have come with preconceived ideas. We’re showing them the variety within the sector.”

Mr Swales said there were 11 people on the course at the moment and that no-one had dropped out, with another five potentially starting this September. He recalled how he’d wanted to be a teacher but then started work in the care sector, loved it, and became the manager of a care home. “Everyone is saying how short-staffed they are,” he said.

Mr Swales said care workers built up a unique rapport with they people they supported, ensuring their daily needs were met. Care managers, he said, were responsible for maintaining high standards within a setting and ensuring it complied with legal requirements. Social workers support children and adults who need care and protection – a profession in which difficult decisions have to be made.

Like Matthew, Charlee started the October 2022 Care Academi course. The 19-year-old was in sixth form at the time and wasn’t really enjoying her studies. University, she said, seemed an expensive prospect and she didn’t want to have to move too far from her home in Carmarthen. Her mother, who works in the NHS, alerted her to the new course.

One of Charlee’s early placements was a Flying Start nursery along with an after-school club and activities with parents.

“I liked that it was different, and it made me feel more grown-up and responsible,” she said.

“At the start of the course I just wanted to work with children – I’ve got younger brothers and sisters and am used to being around younger children.”

But her horizons broadened after placements in rehabilitation and her longer-term current one in a council-run residential home in St Clears.

“It’s there I feel I’ve made the most progression,” she said.

“I’ve made some good friends, and they work really closely with me.”

Charlee said she works at the residential home for 37 hours a week and studies on her days off.

She said she loved travelling and has been able to take trips abroad with the money she’s saved.

She said her current role at the home included arranging residents’ medication and doctors’ appointments. “I want to get into management, and have asked if I can do an ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management) course. It seems to be fine. The boss of my residential home suggested for me to do it.”

Charlee said she used to be “quite scared” of the thought of caring, but not any more. “It has opened my eyes,” she said.

According to Hayley Daniels, the council’s future workforce lead business partner, Care Academi was the first of its kind in Wales.

“Other councils are interested in what’s going on here,” she said.