Career pathway

Enhanced roles require a higher level of leadership or specific skills or qualifications. 

Leadership offers new challenges like:

• Supporting the personal development of staff
• Holding additional accountability - eg budgets
• Sharing your knowledge and skills to provide direction for a service

There are many avenues to take your career to a higher level. 

You can work in either a clinical or wider system setting.

See the core skills you need to work with children

Clinical route

As a registered nurse or midwife, you can study to become a specialist community public health nurse either in:

• Health visiting (0-5 years) 
• School nursing (5-19 years)

This level 7 study provides the knowledge and experience needed to lead public health work with children and families. You'll study the programme through a university with the backing of an employer where you'll be using this training.

Or you might progress to leadership positions within health services. You will often need to be a midwife or health visitor first, depending on where the role is based.

Types of roles

• Midwife post consolidation - including specialist midwives such as mental health specialist midwifes and digital midwives
• Specialist community public health nurse - health visitor or school nurse. Or dual trained including specialist - eg working with young parents.
• Enhanced speech and language therapist

You might then go on to health visiting senior leadership roles like:

• Professional lead - leading and executing learning placements and staff training 
• Safeguarding lead positions. This could include roles in the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH)
• Team lead - providing line management to a clinical workforce and leading these teams

Or you might go on to other types of senior leadership roles like:

• Midwifery training and lead roles
• Public health/Department of Health roles
• Speech and language lead roles. For example, team coordinators, advanced therapists and pathway leads (eg stammering)

Wider system route

Within the wider system, there are many services you could be employed in at a leadership level. For example:

• Early years setting as a nursery manager. See our webpage on early years and childcare careers.
• Children's social care as a social worker. Find out more about becoming a social worker.
• Civil service roles within the Department of Health or Education. These may include strategic leadership roles or wider training programmes. 
• Services in Norfolk across the voluntary sector. Some offer paid leadership roles. These roles enable you to connect with your community and offer support and resources to those that need it most.
• Early childhood and family service coordinator
• Teacher

For wider system leadership roles, you'll usually need a degree in a relevant subject. This may be a level 6 degree or a foundation degree alongside existing experience.

Many wider system roles are community-based where you'll organise community events and networking opportunities. This makes them a great fit if you enjoy building relationships and working in a diverse, inclusive environment.

You might then go on to senior leadership roles like:

• Public health/Department of Health roles
• Senior service manager roles
• Administrative and business lead
• Project manager
• Change/service transition lead
• Quality improvement manager
• Patient experience/engagement lead
• Children's social care team lead/senior social worker