To think I've made a massive error in career choice?

[maybeyesterday]

I'm doing my post grad in social work. Worked hard for 5 years to get my degree in something more general. This is my final year and final placement.

Last placement was with a voluntary agency and was more like support work I was doing. Intensive contact with service users, helping them manage day to day life, attending court and appointments, doing risk assessments and care plans. I loved every second of it. It was such a positive experience and my confidence just grew.

However, I'm now on my second week of a statutory placement. And I just don't think I can do it. I feel like they're speaking a different language (although getting to grips with the acronyms now), I find it so intense and just feel like it's so much responsibility. I know I am protected as a student but I am worrying about when I qualify and whether I'm up for the job. I have been flung in the deep end, have been allocated cases and have had to do visits alone. I haven't even shadowed a visit on this placement, just done visits myself. Is this usual because it's my last one?

Also in the office the social workers were talking today about how they're working 60 plus hours a week to get everything done and are only getting paid for 37.

I honestly don't know if I can do this. It would be a shame to quit now though. Is this usual nerves for just starting somewhere? Or a sign it's all been a waste of time?

I'm a nurse not a social worker but I had placements ad a student which made me question my career choice. I spent at least the first year after qualifying certain I'd picked the wrong profession. I've been qualified over 15 years now and have a job in nursing I enjoy.

I think how we as professionals treat our students is very important as that can turn them off a career before they've even started. I try and make sure my students have the best placement possible whilst with me.

Finish your course and hopefully you can find a job in an area if social work you enjoy. You can always consider retraining in a year or two if you really don't enjoy it.

Anyone?

Some teams are dysfunctional and toxic. It’s a learning experience and you can choose the career you want after - lots of options in social care.

My team are all lovely though that's the thing. It's the work I'm scared of.

Most social work students have similar feelings in their final placement, but I would say your placement isn't being well managed and I'd suggest you speak to someone about your experience so far.

In our authority - which is by no means having an easy time of it - all students have a four week induction of training and shadowing. Then are co allocated and do joint visits. They only do lone visits after their first direct observation, and as long as that's gone ok. Occasionally we do have experienced students who are happy to jump in if we're stuck and might do the odd visit before then but it's planned and it's simple (eg visit to a child in school where we're just checking in hope they're feeling, nothing too serious/risky)

There's no escaping the fact that statutory social work is difficult. Burnout is real. High caseloads, long working hours and the stress of carrying that level of risk are real.
However, you don't have to work in statutory social work. A social work degree opens plenty of doors within differing agencies, as you've seen from your placements. Even within statutory social work there are jobs which won't be as stressful as others. Don't make any decisions about your future in your final placement. Just try to learn from it, get your degree and then consider your options afterwards.

Statutory social work is hard, the purpose of your last placement is to prepare you for practice when you complete your qualification. It should be measurably harder than your first placement and I’d expect you to find it tough at least initially.

In saying that, you should have a clear idea of what you’re doing and an allocated case load to work with supervision. If you aren’t sure what you’re doing you need to ask your supervisor or discuss with your team. You should be doing visits alone unless there’s a reason to be accompanied eg you’re being observed, or there’s a complex assessment or particular risk to consider.

You’ll develop coping strategies and ways to manage your workload, having a good team will help you find your way, but the reality of social work is closer to your current placement than your first one. You could go into the third sector when you qualify, the salaries there reflect the different pace of work though so are generally less.

I am a SW and a PE. Are you on your 2 week induction? You need to shadow visits as part of your induction. If this isn't being arranged flag it up with your practice educator. You need to do visits with different social workers to learn about them and develop your own style. The stat placements are very different to voluntary ones but you will adapt if you want to do it. The second placement is more in depth than the first ones and you need a lot more practice evidence to pass it.

Keep going is my advice. The SW's in the team probably work long hours but they need to talk with the manager if they are doing such long hours to get the work done. It isn't realistic or sustainable going forward to do these long hours. LA's don't pay overtime so yes your colleagues will only get paid for 37 hours which is the contracted full time week hours.

Hope this helps clarify as few things. Good luck I'm sure you can get through your stat placement.

Raise the acronyms with your manager. The profession is full of them (and sometimes different LAs/teams use different ones, or have the same abbreviation to mean different things in different contexts). If it's not clear, write a list of what you come across that needs clarifying, ask what they mean, and then at the end of the placement give them the list to pass to the next student. We did this as an exercise in a previous team and came up with about 5 pages of acronyms or terms; it really must have been like a foreign language for those joining straight out of uni.

Haha as I opened this thought ahh a fellow social worker.

Get through the placement and return to the area you loved

Keep going don’t give up ! Social worker here, I promise you it’s worth it. I’m not sure where you are but I am a manager now and we do not have people working those hours without the overtime or time back. I wouldn’t change studying social work if I could turn back the clock. Good luck x

on the acronyms point I think that’s the same whatever job you do, I remember joining my job and thinking I couldn’t do it because of all the acronyms. It took a month or two but I got up to speed on it quickly and I’m sure you will too

I started off in the voluntary sector when I qualified and initially loved it. But the voluntary sector is now absolutely swamped with referrals and there are ever increasing hoops to jump through to ensure continuing funding. I had a huge caseload at the end with very little support. This is typical now in the voluntary sector.

The salary in the voluntary sector rarely increases much and salary wise I have fallen way behind peers who were nowhere near as motivated or diligent at uni as I was.

I joined the statutory sector 2 years ago and wish I had done this sooner. I am much more supported, can access a huge amount of extra training and my caseload is much less demanding than my previous role.

You just need to find the right team and area for you op.

OP you must have a mentor/ work coach type person, who has responsibility for you, to an extent? Can you raise concerns with them? Also share concerns about doing tasks you're unsure about, with the manager, via email to cover your arse even if their attitude is 'tough shit'.
I would advise trying to finish the qualification, then segue way (?!) into something else afterwards. If you don't finish you won't get funding for another degree in future.

I knew it would be social work…
I would suggest getting your time in at the sharp end, while you still have the energy and then looking for a sideways move, before burnout.

It's the team. Colleagues may be lovely but the culture/type of work isn't for you and that's OK. Your final placement doesn't have to be representative of your eventual job role - your last placement could be, if that makes sense?

I've been qualified ten years and worked in 3 teams during the first 5 or so years (which included two separate 11 month maternity leaves, just to show you how much I moved), I've been in my current role for nearly 5 years and while it's challenging at times, I am settled and largely happy. The work is tough but engaging and I'm good at it. I'm finally developing proper confidence in my knowledge and abilities.

Social work is so varied, it's just about finding the right fit for you. The plus side is there are so many roles and such high staff turnover you can move around a bit to find what works for you. The start of a new team is always hard as there is so much to learn, processes and expectations and norms (and acronyms!).

I am sure I felt the same during the first few months in statutory work but honestly it gets better and easier the more experienced you become and you can use your social work degree in lots of different areas- youth work, yot, voluntary sector.

I haven't been given or spoken to about an induction. My link worker is also my practice teacher and is totally busy and overwhelmed. I wasn't offered the chance to shadow any visits etc. Was just allocated my case load. I asked if someone would be coming with me to visit but they said that I was fine as it was in a hospital setting most of my visits. So I just got on with it. I was so nervous meeting the service users though.

Yes I have a notepad dedicated to acronyms. I am asking constantly, 'what is this, what is that' and then I am writing down the words and then going home and researching what they all mean. This is helping. Good idea to pass on to students.

Definately finish your degree so you have it, you can use it for lots of different types of work,maybe work for a charity? Or a hospice is a good pace and well resourced for social work. It is a very hard job in some areas but you'll find something you like. Good luck in your career!

I was so nervous meeting the service users though

What was making you nervous? I’d expect a student on final placement to be ok meeting service users, to be able to prepare for visits and ask about anything that worried them beforehand.

It’s common practice where I am that you have a practice educator, they’d only have a link worker if the practice educator wasn’t based in their team. Her being busy is neither here nor there, it’s not your responsibility - you need to be able to ask for what you need. Social workers need to be assertive with their service users but also with fellow professionals, if you need an induction plan, or to be shadowing visits etc you need to speak up.

What preparation did you do for your practice placement - what feedback did you have from first placement and what came up in your pre-placement meeting. You need to consider that the next job you go to you’ll be a fully qualified social worker and while your first year will be protected, you’ll be expected to find your feet and carry an allocated case load.

Your first placement sounds lovely, and your first placement should be quite sheltered but it doesn’t always prepare you for the pace of statutory social work. It sounds like you’ve got a hill to climb in this placement but you’ll get there.

I would ask your PE about an induction to the placement and a plan of shadowing colleagues. You will need to undertake in house essential training as well. Have you been offered training? I would advice you to talk with your uni of college tutor about this lack of an induction programme. Are you able to link up with colleagues and ask them directly if you can shadow them on any interesting visits?

It is highly unusual to not have an induction as a student on placement. Very poor practice in my view.

I am a SW and a PE and even on your final placement you should have a proper induction with shadowing and familiarisation with the setting. You should also be having weekly supervision so I would speak to your PE and explain how you are feeling. Even when our team was completely short staffed and overwhelmed I would try my hardest to buffer my student from that experience as ultimately we want you to come back and work with us. It can be hard to challenge your PE but they should know this needs to happen. Where I am there is a PLA meeting 2-3 weeks in and the induction is supposed to be completed by then, do you have this coming up and could you use this as a way to ask for an induction plan?

If it’s really going pear shaped with your PE you need to speak with your course tutor. It should be challenging with a lot to learn and changes you will make to your practice e, but you also should feel very supported in that. (Another Sw and link worker). How does your experience compare with rest of your cohort?