What area of social work do you work in?

[FuckKnowsMatee]

As the title says really! And interested to know if you enjoy the area of social work you’re in?

I am studying social work via the degree apprenticeship route and work in an Adults Social Care Mental Health team. Truthfully, I am not particularly enjoying it all that much so far but can’t really put my finger on as to why.

I will be on a 70 day placement next year within a children’s social care team but won’t find out which team or area this is in for a few more months, however, I am excited for the change and the experience.

If you are a social worker, what area of social work are you in and do you enjoy it?

I have an interest in working with asylum seekers and refugees and when browsing jobs I have seen some social worker roles to work in a team supporting Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children or Separated Children/Families. Interested to hear from anyone with experience of working in this area and how they found it.

There are SO many different routes and roles for social workers to do, so I’m trying to get an idea of roles or areas that might interest me in the future to work in once qualified etc.

Grateful for any responses!

Hi, I'm a Social Worker although no longer frontline. I'm now in strategic management so don't have recent experience of ops but obviously work closely with ops teams and colleagues

I qualified over 30 years ago and I've only ever worked with adults. Mostly older people although early in my career I did a few years working for the Probation service. My favourite job was working as a social worker in a hospice. I've also worked in a hospital discharge team, but didn't enjoy that very much.

There are lots of different options once you're qualified.

I used to work in children's services and have been in all teams from point of contact, assessment, long term, child protection, children looked after, adoption and permanence. I've also held specialist roles leading projects.

I’ve worked in a separated migrant children’s team. I enjoyed the direct work with young people, however there is a lot of age assessing required, which is (rightly) a long process with a lot of report writing. Not for me. If you like working with older adolescents I recommend leaving care.

Thanks for responses.

@AnnaQuayInTheUk you’re right, there is sooo many different options once qualified. Probably roles that I wouldn’t be aware of so interested to hear other social workers experience. Sounds like you’ve got a great deal of knowledge and experience behind you- how are you finding strategic management over frontline?

@Titasaducksarse wow that’s lots of experience right there. Which area of work was your favourite?

@Tenofcups Really interesting to hear your view- I’m actually interested in the age assessing side of things but have no experience, but hoping to shadow at some point if I can. Leaving care would also be interesting to me I think. Tbh I’m more inclined to work with children/adolescents rather than adults and I think that’s where I’m struggling currently as I’m used to working with teens and enjoyed it more!

CAMHS. I love it. Still registered as a social worker but employed as a therapeutic practitioner (I've had additional therapy training). Always interesting and varied, great colleagues and training opportunities, love working with the children and their families. Only downside is the waiting lists sadly.

@Jgkugh I was working in CAMHS prior to starting the degree apprenticeship in social work. Honestly, my original plan was to become qualified and return to CAMHS in my old team but as a practitioner rather than support prac so I could earn more- that was essentially what made me apply for my current role. I needed a core qualification so I could career progress. I miss my previous role and team and even the shifts I worked but I knew I was capable of more than staying at band 4. But now I am in social work, I know there are so many other areas or routes to go down once qualified which is why I’m asking I guess- just to get an idea of what’s out there!

I enjoyed leading on project work probably as I had a lot of autonomy and it gave me different experiences and built skills in other areas, not just SW practice.