Requirements

Residential, day and domiciliary care manager or proprietor - requirements

As a residential, day and domiciliary care manager or proprietor, sometimes called a care manager, you’ll hold a leadership position in a residential care environment and oversee its everyday working. Here you can find out more about a career in care management, learn about what’s involved and how you can study and work towards a role.

Know what you'll need to land a job below.

What qualifications do you need to be a residential, day and domiciliary care manager or proprietor?

A degree in one of the following subjects will be useful in this career:

Apprenticeships or professional qualifications are also an effective way to build the managerial skills and technical knowledge needed to work in care management. Many care management positions will ask for a nursing qualification due to the regulated activities and medical processes involved.

Please note this is a beta version. We'll continue to improve our suggestions here so that we show you the most relevant subjects.

Do you need a postgraduate qualification to be a care manager?

Most employers don’t ask for postgraduate qualifications to work as a care manager, but they can be useful for specialist caring or medical roles.

Examples of relevant courses at postgraduate level include:

Nursing studies
Advanced clinical practice
Mental health nursing
Health management
Leadership and human resource management

What skills do you need to be a care manager?

Leadership skills, communication skills and a passion for providing care are core elements of a successful care manager.

Hard skills usually include:

Nursing
Caring for the elderly
Dementia and alzheimer’s care
Planning care
Knowledge of care laws and regulations
Finance and audits

Soft skills include:

Leadership skills
Managing others
Managing processes
Written and verbal communication
Compassion
Quality monitoring
Planning skills
Mentoring and coaching

Do you need work experience to be a care manager?

Most care management roles will need you to have two or more years of work experience in a related area like nursing, social work, healthcare or social care. To work in a care environment, you’ll typically need to be registered as a care manager to carry out the regulated activities involved, which will require experience in the field.