The BGS Lead for Social Care is a new role leading the BGS’s work at the interface between health and social care. We are seeking a BGS member and clinical leader with expertise in both healthcare and social care to help strengthen our influence in crucial areas where the two sectors meet.
Health and social care are devolved to the four countries of the UK, with the social care sectors organised, funded, commissioned and regulated in different ways and therefore facing different challenges. In England, social care has been in crisis for decades, with multiple governments promising and failing to reform it. In July 2026, the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, committed to reforming the system of social care in England. A Commission led by Dame Louise Casey is already underway, which will make recommendations about how the sector can be sustainably funded and organised. As part of this, the Big Conversation on Care was launched in July, encouraging the public to share their thoughts on the future of social care in England.
During the COVID pandemic, the BGS published influential guidance for care home staff, and followed this up with Ambitions for Change: Improving healthcare in care homes. Since then, with policy developments and structural changes to the health system across the UK, we have prioritised influencing care that takes place in the NHS. Now with renewed government commitment to reforming social care and a Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia being published in autumn 2026, we want to seize the policy opportunity for the BGS to help ensure that the healthcare needs of older people, whether living in care homes or with social care support at home, are met.
Many of our members working in the NHS or in care homes look after older people who receive such social care. There is a huge opportunity to support healthy ageing, to identify early signs of illness or deterioration, to pre-empt unplanned emergency care and to support people with long-term conditions to live and die well, by delivering skilled care in situ.
The BGS’s mission is to improve healthcare for older people. We want to ensure that high-quality health and social care can come together to enable older people living with complex needs to have happy, independent and healthy lives for as long as possible.
This role will take a lead at that interface between health and social care, helping the BGS to strengthen its education, training and workforce support, and to contribute to the policy and practice changes that deliver more joined-up, high-quality care.
If you are interested in supporting a better experience for the older people who depend on social care, please consider applying for this role.
Main responsibilities
-
To oversee the BGS’s output and positioning at the interface of health and social care, with the aim of strengthening our influence and impact on the goal of delivering better healthcare for older people who receive social care in the UK.
-
To work with BGS officers and staff to strengthen our existing routes to supporting skills development for those working in care homes and domiciliary care.
-
To capitalise on current and future policy opportunities to influence the quality of healthcare for older people receiving social care.
Tasks
-
To keep an overview of NHS/Government policy developments relating to social care across the four countries of the UK, and to lead BGS efforts to influence these.
-
Working with the BGS Policy Manager and Director Learning and Professional Development, to help the BGS to develop a clear position and offer aligned to the recommendations of the Casey Commission, the Ten Year Health Plan and the Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia.
-
To work with the VP Education and Training and the BGS Events team on developing educational products and services that build on our existing elearning, one-day conference and other conference sessions, seeking to reach the workforce delivering healthcare in care homes and in domiciliary care settings, and to deliver sustainable income.
-
To support coordination between different committees, groups (including the Healthcare in the Community Group) and teams in the BGS so that opportunities for connecting our mainstream work on healthcare with social care are optimised, building from the experience of those who work across the NHS and social care or specifically in healthcare roles within social care.
-
To collaborate with interested social care partners, such as care home chains, to develop a package of workforce support that enables them to improve standards and consistency of clinical care for older people.
-
To represent the BGS externally as needed in meetings/ events on health and social care and to hold relationships with key allies such as the National Care Forum, Care England, Age UK and the Care Providers Alliance, seeking alignment on common goals.
-
To help the BGS to develop a clear membership offer for care home nurses and other senior care home staff with responsibility for the healthcare of their residents.
-
To keep abreast of emerging research and evidence on healthcare in social care settings, connecting with our journal, Age and Ageing, and the BGS VP Research and Academic Development as needed.
-
To provide communications in different forms about developments in the closer alignment of social care and healthcare, to help those involved in delivering care for older people to feel informed, to learn from each other’s experience, to implement good practice and, where possible, to influence local commissioning.
-
To represent the BGS in campaigns and social care reforms led by partners that create a more equitable and joined-up system, parity between the NHS and social care workforces and a better experience for older people.
Accountability
The Social Care Lead will be a member of the Policy and Communications Committee, and this project will sit under their remit. They will also work with the Education and Training Committee to develop an education offer for social care staff with responsibility for healthcare.
Staff support
BGS Policy Manager and Policy Co-Ordinator (for policy and positioning); BGS Director of Learning and Professional Development and Digital Education Manager (for education and training); BGS Comms team.
Group support
We will put out a call for BGS members interested in joining a new Social Care Group. We expect this opportunity will be of interest to any care home staff in our membership, GPs and other multiprofessional staff involved in delivering Enhanced Healthcare in Care Homes (EHCH), and community geriatricians and community teams (who may already be members of the BGS’s Healthcare in the Community Group) whose remit spans care homes. There may also be BGS members who are conducting research in care homes or domiciliary care who would like to join. We will establish this online group to support the work of the Social Care Lead.
Geographical scope
As social care is devolved to the four nations, the post-holder will need to gain familiarity with different approaches. BGS outputs need to be relevant to all countries of the UK as far as possible, but there is a specific policy opportunity in England which will be a core focus of the role.
Terms of role
This is a voluntary unpaid role for 2 years. We understand that clinicians have busy day jobs, and we hope this post holder will be able to allocate a few hours a week and will find the role motivating and interesting. It is a new role, modelled on the Frailty Lead role the BGS established a year ago (occupied by James Adams), so there is plenty of scope to shape it.
Person specification
The successful candidate will:
-
Have experience of working in healthcare of older people and in social care.
-
Be a BGS member with leadership experience; they may be from any profession.
-
Have an interest in helping the BGS to develop a credible, sustainable offer for the social care workforce and in seizing the policy opportunities to shape better, more joined-up care for older people.
-
Ideally have some experience of shaping healthcare services for older people living in care homes or receiving domiciliary care.
How to apply
Send your CV and a statement of up to 400 words saying what you could bring to the role to ceo@bgs.org.uk by 9am on 29 September. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed online the following week.
