How can I progress? I'm so miserable at work!

[AlwaysTimeForTea1]

I've been in my current role in adult education for over 5 years now within the adult care sector and I'm now looking at what my next move is. I am qualified up to level 5 in health a social care and have experience working in various caring roles including management. Through my job I have gained more knowledge in drug and alcohol services, and mental health services and I'm have really become interested in psychology and mental health.
My concerns are that I can't move forward by studying at university due to the drop in income. I'm a single parent to a young child but would absolutely love to extend my learning and career within mental health or social work.
Maybe I'm just ranting but I'm so miserable in my current role, it's not challenging me enough and if anyone has any advice on how I could potentially move forward that would be great 😊

Would you be able to study with the Open University, which allows you to still work full-time? Obviously there's a cost, but there might be some financial help available, and you can keep earning as you are now.

I think student funding was extended to open University including part-time.

Would you like to be a mental health project worker, the money is pretty good and there are lots of different types of work, The Guardian advertise thse jobs on Wednesdays or a job website would have them. If you work for a large organisation like Rethink or St Mungo the training and career development is very good.

Mental health charities often have vacancies for project work like a previous poster said or to run their services. Without being too outing I got my foot in the door at my current job by volunteering in the evenings first.

Thank you for the comments. With social work I need to be in a job role already with open university but not with a psychology degree. I have looked at what is available in terms of mental health roles but not much available currently.

Does anyone know if I took a lower paid job I would be able to access UC or wil they take into account I'm not working at my earning potential? I'd love to work on the front line but it would be a big drop financially.