To ask whether anyone has changed career from social work to something else

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And if so what career have they gone into and how did you do it? I am struggling in my current career at the moment and finding things very stressful especially with a family

Have you considered health visiting? You can now do a direct entry degree with out already being a nurse. I converted from nursing recently and it's a lovely job. You will also bring lots of good transferable skills.

Work / home balance is also good, after 25 years of shifts, it's been a welcome change.

Thank you for your reply. No I hadn't considered health visiting as I'd thought a nursing qualification was required. I will have a look into it thank you, although I'm not really wanting to undertake a further degree.

As a nurse it was only a year to convert, there is funding at present so place is fully funded due to a national shortage. Look up health visitor implementation plan - a call to action, it will tell you about current drive and reasons for increasing numbers.

You are paid whilst doing course as well!

Omg I thought someone was pretending to be me then who had written this thread! Single parent, frontline cp sw, carrying on will lead to a breakdown, trying to change career, tick tick tick tick.

I see it's an old thread- op what did you do in the end? I'm looking or inspiration.

. :(

If you are looking for work life balance I would definitely advise avoiding teaching in HE. Longest unpaid hours ever! In fairness it goes in fits and starts but its not unusual to work till 12 or 1am and then get up at 5 to start again just in order to get things done.

Its nothing like Inspector Morse, no oak panelled offices and lengthy intellectual debates - very disappointing

my best friend could have written this - moved into primary school pastoral work and loves it

Thanks for the replies. I don't have a nursing degree so the one year health visitor conversion is not an option for me. I also have no experience in social work with children as my role was in adult social care. Any other ideas and advice greatly appreciated.

I'm a Social Worker and love my job. I'm not in adult care any more, I grew to hate working with adults and work in CP now. If you have a SW degree there are loads of options available. Have you thought about a Volunteer Co-ordinator role or a Home Care Co-ordinator? If you have experience working within an adult care setting both roles would suit you. Alternatively there's roles in lecturing. The Teaching Qualification for Further Education is worthwhile if lecturing at colleges would suit you. Loads of colleges are always looking for lecturers in Social Care.

Well you are probably in one of the most pressured teams tbh. I can see why it wouldn't be great as a single parent. Can you identify the parts of your job that you like/ feel you are skilled at? It may help you work out where you can go next. If you like social work, it may well be that a sideways move to a different team would be a good choice.

Oops! Didn't read the thread properly and was replying to original post

Charitable funding for counselling courses? Since when?!

Realise the person who posted is unlikely to see this

Thanks again for the replies. I do have a social work degree, but have been out of practice for some time so just trying to consider what I might want to do now, that is still fits with having a young family. Thank you all for your time, will read up on all of your helpful suggestions.

Could you work as a Social Worker in a school ? Hospital ? Prison ? Care home ? Could you work in a needle exchange programme ? Could you work with addicts or somewhere where counselling is required for alcohol and other drugs ?

I worked with a cp sw who got a job with the Youth Justice Service. As an alternative, what about working in the Probation Service ?

Family Group Conference ? Emergency 999 operator ?

Case manager (ie for people funding care from compensation cases)? Better hourly rate, lots of working from home - hence you can work less hours for same money. And a chance to implement properly funded care packages, get nice equipment for clients. Look at BABICM for advice.
Speaking as one who did a similar thing - I've never looked back xx

Hi , Just responding as this was my original thread, it has been interesting to see the most recent replys and looks like im not on my own.

You can't do health visiting without having a nursing or midwifery qualification

I went from social services / children's services social work into CAMHS. Much as I do like my job it was really just swapping one type of stress for another

Watching as currently working in LAC team and want to reduce to p/t hours

Look at local charities eg age UK - many may have suitable roles for someone with SW experience
I work in Advocacy and although the pay is not fantastic there's plenty of job satisfaction
I am practice educator for SW students most of whom want to come back and work for us!

The nhs website says you have to be a nurse or midwife - can anyone point me to where it's possible to not have those qualifications and become a health visitor?