Anyone work in safeguarding/child protection?

[MaMoosie]

I have the opportunity this year to further my studies and I’m looking to train further in this area. My background is adult mental health, BSC in psychology. I’m currently working in a children’s home which I love but I want to go into more of the child protection side of things. There is the option of training as a social worker through my employer which is an option. But I was also chatting to a police officer who works in the PPU today and that sounded really interesting too.

If you work in this area what do you do and how did you get there?

I used to. You'll have to be tough and have a strong backbone, the capacity to not take things personally, and an understanding that people will often be upset or angry with you because you are interfering (even if justified).

It can be very rewarding but challenging too. You're more often working with the parents than the children, so keep that in mind.

Children's social care is more about managing the lives of the parents than directly working with the children. You obviously do meet with and build bonds with the children, but you spend just as much time in meetings/court/phone calls that the children don't attend. You directly can have a huge impact on the kids, but a lot of it is almost life admin to improve their living standards and the parents' emotional or physical health and stability through community resources.

And to be blunt, a lot of a children's social worker's time is spent having very difficult conversations with people who want nothing to do with them. Abuse and harassment is not uncommon at all. I know several cases where social workers have been surrounded by mobs from the local community hurling abuse and essentially chasing them away.

My understanding was that PPU/vulnerability work is a specialism you undertake once you're trained as a regular police officer. So I guess the question is whether you want to work as a police officer first or go straight into working in safeguarding.