Urgently need ideas for a career change from care work on £36k please!!

[SeaSri]

Posting here for traffic because I am honestly getting desperate! I really need to find a new job ASAP and would be so grateful for any ideas or suggestions x

I’ve worked in care settings for around 15 years — care homes, residential care for children and, more recently, social services. I’ve reached the point where I really need to leave my current job for my own sanity, but obviously I can’t just walk away without having something else lined up.

I’m currently on around £36k and realistically need to stay somewhere around that salary because of my mortgage.

I’m a lone parent, so I can’t rely on an OH’s wage to make up the difference, although I’m very lucky that I have siblings nearby who are happy to help with childcare if needed.

I’m honestly open to ideas at this point! I’m going to look into every possible avenue, including survey/task work that I can do alongside things, but what I really need is a full-time job with a similar salary.
I’ve even considered medical trials, although I take medication for a couple of conditions so I probably wouldn’t make a particularly useful control subject 😂

If anyone has any ideas at all about jobs I could look at, industries I could move into, or ways of using my experience outside of social care, I would genuinely appreciate it. I feel completely stuck and need to find a way out.
Thank you so much ❤️

Start by mapping out what your qualifications and training are, skillsets (on the job or otherwise) strengths and also other things of value such as people management, project management, event management and so on.

think about WHY you want to move on what is driving you crazy? What do you want to be different and also what do you generally enjoy.

You could look at food or retail mgt, event management, even office management. Its hard to say without some insight into your educational background, skillset and personal preferences.

You could also look at roles to train into - apprenticeships arent just for kids, although not sure how you would fair on salaries with that one

Could you afford to retrain into something like occupational therapy, radiography or another allied health profession? Those jobs are in demand and will pay a bit more although you may need to start on less until experienced. Or a safeguarding role in a secondary school? Or PIP assessor (you might need medical experience for this).
If you’re a qualified children and families social worker, some pivot to become lawyers but that is competitive.

Thank you! I think the main things I’m trying to get away from are the caseload and the constant restructuring. It feels like every few years there’s another restructure/reorganisation and everything changes again, and I’m honestly just so fed up with it!

I’ve got a good set of GCSEs and A levels and a degree in social work, which I actually did through work release. I’m not currently working as a social worker though but in a similar role.

I’ve always thought event management would probably suit me quite well, but it’s always been more of a “that would be nice!” pipe-dream sort of idea rather than something I’d ever seriously considered doing 😂 So I suppose I’m wondering whether there are actually realistic ways of getting into something like that without starting completely from scratch.

Really appreciate the suggestions though, thank you! x

Hi,

You could move into a safeguarding role in a school or NHS.

I wouldn’t waste your time with surveys or anything like that, they pay peanuts and your time will be better spent job hunting .

Thank you, I have thought about retraining but unfortunately I don’t think I could afford to do it. I really need to keep earning roughly what I’m on now because of the mortgage, so taking a pay cut while retraining, even if it paid off longer term, probably isn’t realistic for me.

Law has actually always been an interest of mine, but I’m not sure I could hack it! 😂 It’s also so competitive and I don’t think I could realistically afford to retrain for that either.

I’m definitely going to look into safeguarding roles in schools though, and PIP assessor is another one I hadn’t really considered, so thank you for the suggestions! x

What about CQC as an inspector or is it the same shit show in England as the LA ?

Thank you! I hadn’t actually thought about CQC, so I’ll definitely have a look and see what the roles are like. I’m slightly wary of jumping from one shit show to another 😂 but it’s definitely worth looking into, especially if I can use the experience I already have rather than having to retrain. x

That’s a good point actually, thank you. I was thinking about doing surveys because I’m getting pretty desperate and really need to get out of my current job ASAP. It just isn’t tenable for me anymore, so I was thinking anything that might bring in a bit of extra money while I’m job hunting was worth a try!

But you’re probably right that my time would be much better spent concentrating on finding something else. I’ll definitely look into safeguarding roles in schools/NHS as well. Thank you! x

What about head of care in a residential specialist school; they are usually social workers? I guess those jobs don’t come up very often though?

DD lives in a care home, which employs social workers in a Positive Behaviour Support Team.

How about doing some training in being an expert witness, and become an independent social worker? We used one, as an expert witness in a court battle with our LA over DD’s education. I knew another one too.

Other than maybe civil service/health protection or local authority, I'm afraid I can't think of anything else specific with that pay grade.

A friend used to work in event management before kids. Her degree was sociology, so unrelated, and she learnt on the job. She worked in multiple roles from hotels and co-ordinating weddings/events to a high street store chain and arranging launches etc. The hotel job was static, but the other had her travelling all around the country, often overnight. There was often weekend and very late into the night work and she could never find anything suitable after having kids, even though she has a partner and family nearby to help.

I used to work in clinical trials. Depending on your own medical condition/s you 'might' get on a trial related to your condition. This would likely be a phase 3 or 4 trial and 'in general' might just pay travel money/lunch or a small amount. Sometimes this could just be a questionnaire, other times an actual drug trial.

The clinical trials you see advertised in the metro for £4,000 are often phase 1 or 2. Phase 1 means its the 1st time being tested on a human. Again, I'm generalising, but most phase 1 is done on young, fit men and the screening can be extremely stringent. Phase 2, depending on the drug, can sometimes include females, but again can have stringent medicals to pass and often multiple visits, sometimes over several months.

There are whole websites dedicated to clinical trials and especially for known conditions, but I'd concentrate on a job rather than those. Wishing you all the best though x