Need retraining advice - What do you do, does it pay well, fit with children etc..

[PanannyPanoo]

I have 3 children at primary school. My husband has recently been diagnosed with a degenerative condition which will mean in a year or 2 he will be unable to work, and will be significantly disabled.

I used to be Head of Care at a Children's home. Working long shifts, 7 days a week. I earned a good salary, but it would be totally unsuitable to return to - split shifts, on call, needing to be there 24 hours for inspections etc.

I currently work weekend nights as a carer in a hospice, which I love but I will need to earn more when he can no longer work, I don't want to increase my nights as when I have done extra in the past for cover it has wrecked my body clock and I don't want to be a grumpy sleepy mum, who is not on top form at work or home.
I find learning pretty easy, so think I could take the next year or 2 to retrain, and now all of our children will be in school I will have time in the days to study.
Anyone got any bright ideas? I have done accounts for a local charity and whilst I have the skills I hate it! I like working with people, I have worked in schools and special needs environments but the pay may not be enough. I am competent with a computer, can work in a team or alone, pretty self motivated and diligent. Has anyone got any inspiration? My husband will need significant and expensive alterations done to the house, I will need to earn 25-30k to cover our living expenses, Significantly less than what we are currently earning, but we could manage on that.

I am sure many of you do jobs that I have never considered. Any bright ideas, please share!

What is your highest level of education?

Social work? Hospital liaison? Prison service? (Friend of mine was an educational officer at a YOI).

I have Nvq 5 in social care, am a registered Manager and an nvq Assessor. So equivalent to degree level, but very specific.
A level standard in law, business, accounting and performance arts
Can drive a mini bus and do sign language! but not at the same time.

I think your skills are incredibly valuable and will be increasingly in high demand and short supply in the future.

My first suggestion would be that your skills would be put to fantastic use as a social worker. With your hands on experience with children and adults you could choose either route. Often hours can be quite flexible and there may be alternative options such as working in a hospital setting, not just community.

However, in reality social care often plays second fiddle to healthcare (especially when it comes to funding) and therefore a more healthcare focused conversion to something like counselling could suit you well. Counselling is something many people pick their own working hours for and also then opens up lots of other options later. You can increase / decrease clients depending on situation and lots of people also work from home in a small annex type room if that's something you could manage.

Clearly something like nursing won't suit because of shifts, but please pick something that allows you to transfer all the skills and experience you've had to date. There are so many people who would be grateful for it.

Home school link worker? It won't be a huge salary, but would use some of your skills and fits with school hours. You might get top up benefits which isn't ideal as you never know when they chsnge/stop etc.

If you've done accounts but like working with people, could working in payroll in a large organisation fit the bill? I used to work in a joint payroll/ HR office at a university and really enjoyed it - plenty of people to talk to (in our office and employees within the university) . Have had a career break raising children and am thinking of going back to it. Don't know what qualifications you need though.

Wrt making alterations to your house, you may be able to get some help with that - friends of ours had to make extensive changes to their house when their 20 yo son was left partially paralysed following an accident - downstairs bedroom, wetroom, hoists etc and got a large chunk of that paid for with a grant despite earning decent salaries.

Thank you so much. There are some really good ideas there. I will get googling and see about transferring some skills. Idea of Counselling is really appealing. I did an evening course years ago - very basic, but incredibly interesting. Thank you.

When I had my careers talk at school Many years ago and had to fill out a questionaire it came back that I would be best suited to a prison warden! So that is really interesting.

Cross posted with others - probably something closer linked to what you've already done would be more likely to help you command a greater salary, though.