Adult social care
Support worker jobs
Helping adults with a learning disability, autism or a mental health condition live independently, usually in supported living or out in the community.
This page is the guide. The 152 area pages below carry the published figures for each local authority, and the adverts live on this site right now.
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Support worker jobs across the UK
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Open adverts for Support worker jobs across the UK, as a plain list
What the published data covers
Adding up the published local figures across the 152 areas with data gives 43,400 on the measure this role is indexed by, which is community support and outreach, filled posts. The middle area records 225. That is arithmetic over local releases, not a national statistic, and areas the publisher withholds are simply absent from it.
The largest are Kent at 1,500, Lancashire at 1,500, Birmingham at 1,100, Leeds at 1,100, Hampshire at 1,000. Coverage runs across 9 regions of England.
For national context, Skills for Care reported an adult social care vacancy rate of 6.2%, about 96,000 posts, in the year to March 2026, down from 7% and the lowest since 2015-16, against a whole-economy rate of 2.2%. Source: Skills for Care, reported by Community Care and National Health Executive, 2026. The area figures above are from the ASC-WDS local release for 2024/25.
Support worker: the full picture
Supported living, outreach and the difference between them
In supported living you are based at a property where people hold their own tenancy. The service supports the tenants; it does not run their lives, and the distinction shows up in every decision about money, food and who comes through the door.
Outreach is visiting. You meet somebody at home or in town for a fixed number of hours a week and work on whatever they are trying to do, which might be a job application, a GP appointment or simply getting out of the flat.
What employers look for
No qualification is needed to apply, and most services would rather recruit somebody with patience and a driving licence than somebody with a certificate and neither. Positive behaviour support training is usually provided once you start.
Expect questions about boundaries at interview. Support work goes wrong in predictable ways: doing things for people rather than with them, and letting a routine that suits the rota override the one that suits the person.
Before you apply
- No formal qualifications needed to apply
- Enhanced DBS check, paid for by the employer
- A driving licence helps for community and outreach rounds
- Right to work in the UK
Support worker jobs: common questions
What qualifications do I need to work as a support worker?
No formal qualifications needed to apply. Enhanced DBS check, paid for by the employer. A driving licence helps for community and outreach rounds. Right to work in the UK.
Where does AceLeads Jobs have published figures for support worker jobs?
In 152 English councils with adult social services responsibilities. Skills for Care collects the workforce data set for England only, so there is no equivalent local figure for Wales or Scotland. Adverts themselves are UK wide.
Do you decide who gets sent to an employer?
No. You read the adverts, you choose one, and you apply to that employer yourself. Nothing on this site forwards a person to a job they did not apply to, and no employer is given a list of people.
What does it cost to use?
Nothing, ever. It is always free for job seekers, and employers pay to advertise. There is no premium account, no paid profile and no fee of any kind on the job seeker side.