...to have a career change to become a social worker?

[BimbleBingle]

I'm currently working in finance - I've worked hard to get where I am, and have a comfortable salary.

I've always been interested in working in social work, and feel like it's a suitable time to consider a career change. I'm motivated by the thought of being able to have a positive impact on people's lives, but I'm conscious I may have rose-tinted spectacles on.

I have friends who are teachers and have completely burnt out after a few years, despite starting their careers full of high hopes and energy, as the system seems broken. I'm unsure whether being a social worker may be similar - are there any social workers out there that can share their experiences?

Gosh, well we need good people to be social workers. Do you need to get a/another degree? Will you have to pay for it? That alone would make a no from me. The salary isn’t great so how to you make that work.
Id say it could be very rewarding but also awful. Massive underfunding and knowing that an awful lot could be solved in society if there was more parity. Like trying to plug a flood with your thumb.

Could you stay in the some profession but move into charity sector?

We need more social workers and teachers. However, go in with your eyes open. I would put this on the 'work' board as they'll be plenty of people working in this area who can give you information about the job.

My friend worked in social services for years and she had burn out. She moved over to a secondary school and works as a family support worker. She lives it. So plenty of different avenues to go down 🙂

I would say it's similar to teaching and nursing- massive staff shortages, huge caseloads, distressing situations, constant deadlines and pressure. Do you feel you have an understanding of just what awful things go on for some people? I have been a support worker for 15 years seeing young people who've had a lifetime of trauma - I don't think I could cope with seeing little children in such horrible circumstances.

I’m not a social worker but seriously looked into it and asked colleagues who are.
The downs seem to be massive caseloads, can’t be manage. Lots of temporary staff leaving things after going, or not completely doing things or leaving things at a certain level. More need than capacity. Management dealing with the above by hiding from it.
Basically a lot of stress and hours.
One benefit though was not taking work hime, comparing to teaching it can be left at the office a little better. Still though, offset against high stake stress and responsibilities.

Probably the worst time to become a social worker when they are leaving in droves because they are so over worked they can't make a difference and are just fire fighting one high profile failure after another. Be a florist or something, seriously.

So far a bit of a depressing thread. There must be some social workers who find fulfilment in their jobs - hopefully they’ll come and comment.

I wanted to share some balance here as been a very negative thread so far, my experience is that social work is a really fulfilling career. It can be stressful of course and there can/ often is a demanding workload. I would say we are in a slightly different place to where we were a decade ago in terms of that and local authorities are working hard to try and support retention with better work life balance initiatives, for example we offer a 9 day fortnight. Every local authority is not equal in this regard some (like mine) are pretty supportive and thoughtful, others aren't always.
There are also so many different kinds of social work (even in just children's world) MASH for example is typically more 9-5, fostering and adoption can have a better work life balance than safeguarding, I'm a HoS now and have the IROs and conference chairs in my service area and they have a better work life balance (need experience to move into this space).
Ultimately social work is a vocation not a job, I love it (not every day) but I believe what we do is vital and I see the impact of it and know that my job makes a difference.

I’m a teacher. I’m struggling to stay in love with my job right now. For a few years I’ve been saying that the only job that I know that is actually worse than mine right now is social work!

it’s an important role but go in with your eyes open. Talk to some social workers before embarking on this to get their perspective.

The social workers I work with are excellent people, under massive pressure, with huge caseloads trying to do their best in a totally overworked and underfunded system...I admire you for thinking about it, but I would try and talk to those on the frontline first...it's brutal, thankless and difficult and the weight of responsibility is huge when things go wrong. In my job (a charity), we mainly work with Early Help and lower level cases, but the severity and complexity of the need has increased even in the 2ish years I have been doing my current job.

@BimbleBingle I'm a Social Worker, I've worked with children for nearly 10yrs, and in the last year moved to work in adult services. Agree with what others say, definitely go in with your eyes open. We need people in the profession who are doing it for good reasons to help others. It is a massively underfunded area, working closely with other really under funded areas. With cost of living, etc there are more people needing services and less resources available, which is frustrating.
There's lots of different areas of social work - children's, adults, voluntary organisations, statutory. You could go into an area working with families and children where there are safeguarding concerns, working with learning disabilities, older people, mental health - with children or adults, drugs & alcohol, domestic abuse. It's hard to say they all cause burnt out or that people experience the same in each area. I spent a few years in child protection and was burnt out and it wasn't for me. I've spent my career since then in mental health and feel so supported, even when there's difficult times.
The salary in my experience isn't that bad, there's always going to be that view that you should be paid more for the additional work out of hours you can end up doing, or the hours you spend thinking about families/individuals out of hours, and the risk you can end up holding. However, council's tend to offer recruitment and retention packages, and the NHS are open with their banding so you can look on the NHS website for more information. Voluntary and charity sectors will of course always pay less because they don't have the same money available, so again it depends what you want to do and what you need to live off. There's also personal boundaries people can put in with additional hours worked - the team culture is really important for this, if managers work over hours it can lead other workers to feel they have to as well.

Professional registration is with Social Work England, we have to submit registration yearly - it's £90 a year which can be paid in two instalments over the year. You can't practice without up to date registration.
Have a look at Community Care if you haven't already, it has lots of articles about the world of social work.

Good luck, it's a rewarding area to work in. You're working with the most vulnerable people and advocating for them and helping to empower them. There are really horrific stories and experiences that you hear, and it does leave a mark, but that's where good supervision and a good team around you helps.

Adult's social worker here.

Definitely less stressful than working children's and I love my job but I'm so tired and stressed all the time I don't know how much longer I can do this.

Social care is so underfunded and the pressures on the NHS mean we are battling every day to sort people as 'urgent'.

Worthwhile but thankless!

I'm a student social worker and 'career changer'. Look into the graduate schemes if you have a 2:1 degree. It's funded and you get a bursary to study. The bursary is £1,200 a month, you can't get any additional help with that, such as UC or student finance. But the course is paid for. The bursary is for living expenses. The massive change for me is my commute, which is now 26 miles each way. I can't claim for that cost back, which is understandable but feels unfair when others are placed much closer to home. But they can only offer you placements which have signed up to the scheme.

The first year is all placement based with about six weeks of online learning at the start. I had to go to uni for one week which was 300 miles away but they pay for hotel, transport, food etc.
You get a placement in a local authority or NHS and then have to do your academic work on top but it's honestly not loads. Most is observed meetings with service users and feedback forms. I imagine it's a bit like driving a car in that most of your learning is done after you pass your test!
Then in the second year you are paid as a newly qualified social worker and have a smaller caseload (supposedly) plus you get extra supervision from your manager.
I'm going into adult social work but I'm in a child team at the moment and everyone is very busy. They are so resilient and they work so bloody hard but it's like trying to hold back the tide. Nothing in the world would make me go into children's social work.
My LA seem really supportive and helpful. No one seems to have experienced any workplace bullying or discrimination which was rife in the NHS trust where I worked before.
I'm really looking forward to my career. I'm already used to logging on in the evenings and weekends thanks to my NHS experience but I imagine it might come as a shock if you're used to logging off at 5 and being done. Not saying that's your reality OP!
I don't regret it for a minute. Drop out rates are high due to finances. The programme tries to recruit high flyers from other industries but in reality not many can drop to earning £1,200 a month unless they are living with parents, move areas or have a very well of partner. I'm a single mum of two and so it's been hard but I got a bit extra from the hardship fund to make up a bit of the loss of my UC.
As all my work has been in MH, I am finding the acronyms, terms and legal aspect of working in children's hard. People just throwing about numbers and acronyms in meetings. It takes a while to learn what everyone is on about.
Ethically it's difficult at times. Telling people they are homeless and housing is unlikely. Telling people they have to pay for their care after they have a life changing accident. Telling people they aren't considered to have the needs they think they have.
Children's is even harder. Speaking to people about their children, knowing full well that they are likely to be removed. Hearing about abuse and then meeting the smiling, friendly parents. Placing someone's sixth child up for adoption and thinking you'll be in the exact same situation in ten months time. It's not work I could do personally although you definitely feel you're making a difference. But there's only so many hours in a day.

This is really helpful, thanks. To be honest, I considered the pay aspect but hadn't really considered the work/life balance as much. Although I'm happy to spend the odd evening catching up, I don't want my job to impact on my family life at weekends.

Thanks, I have a 2:1, so this would be my preferred option. That's a great point about locations of placements though - I'm not a youngster with no dependants, so can't just move to another city or area to take a new job. I'll have to check if it's something available within a reasonable travelling distance.

Do you have to choose your specialist area (children / adults etc) early on, or is it something that is decided once you find out what your strengths are after a few months/year or two of training?

One benefit though was not taking work hime, comparing to teaching it can be left at the office a little better. Still though, offset against high stake stress and responsibilities.

It depends on where you work tbh, children's social workers can do very long work weeks and be completing reports etc well into the evening And then there's emotional impact of what you do which you definitely take home with you at times.

In saying that, I've been a social worker for 25 years and have had an incredibly fulfilling, interesting career. Yes it's hard work - you're dealing with the most vulnerable of people at some of the worst times in their lives, you're often not a very welcome presence in their world because there's a lot of stigma around social work involvement however the opportunity to build relationships and turn things around is a massive privilege. There are lots of different areas of social work and different agencies to work with so you can find something that's a good fit for your interests and abilities.

I'd recommend social work as a career, you need to have a high degree of empathy, strong boundaries, the ability to suspend judgement, be able to build strong constructive relationships, the ability to challenge other people (fellow professionals and families), good analytical skills and a high level of resilience. If you tick those boxes, give it a go.

I'm a foster carer (former teacher) so I have worked with lots of social workers, and have seen great and not so great.

The good ones are very careful with their own work-life balance. I think this is important as you cannot let the emotions of the job grind down your family life. They are also good at following protocols - so coming from finance, you should already have this skill-set.

A really draining thing for children's team is the amount of time you spend in the car. Dealing with birth parents is often not easy.

@BimbleBingle you can pick where in the country so you put
1.) London
2.) Midlands
3.) North east

Or wherever
You just have to be clear that you won't be able to relocate. I said that I had a mortgage and kids in school. They have a lot of people with commitments on the scheme. They won't place you further than 30 miles away from your house as it's led to more drop outs in the past.
I actually deferred starting the course to get a closer placement, and the closer option was still nearly 30 miles. But that's the job.
There is an expectation you will spend two years in that area so you need to make sure it works for you. That said many of my year will probably go elsewhere at the end of July. Technically you're a qualified social worker at this point but you don't get the full qualification. I think that means you can't teach or be a consultant SW or something.
The grad schemes are separated into children or adults but you study the law of both. My course intends you to go into adult social work and we only have a 30 day placement in children's. You can't go into children's social work for your second year, as the scheme doesn't have those connections. However when you're fully qualified you can work wherever you want in children or adults.
The children's social work schemes are similar. There's frontline or step up. I think there are some differences. You get paid more but the course is longer? Something like that.
Good luck, happy to answer any questions

@BimbleBingle also, the problem is that they won't know before you apply where you might be based. That was my experience. From when I applied in September until when I was accepted in January, it took until May for them to confirm where I would be based. That's May to start in July! There's a lot of uncertainty and I didn't hand my notice in or mention to work that I was leaving until I knew I could get to my placement location.

Where are you OP?

In London and the home counties a newly qualified worker might start on around 28ish, give or take

I wont repeat what others have said, and I assume you're talking bout children's SW, adults is very different

But yes we need Social Workers

I'm a social worker (manager) and I love my job. I've never done anything else (started in social care at 23) so I definitely recommend it but you'd need some kind of related experience before getting on the fast track training scheme. I supervise apprentices and I've had a family support worker leave to do step up (the 15 month training scheme) and all needed decent experience before being accepted. I've also got a newly qualified SW in my team who came from the corporate world but she quit to do very low paid social care work for 6 months before applying - she's amazing and her experience really supported her but to be able to get on a training course you really do need to be able to do something like that or volunteer in your free time. Don't let that stop you though if you can make it happen. It's a brilliant career.

Edit;
you don't have to choose a specialism at all. You'll be matched with placements that suit your learning needs and most students will get one adults and one children ideally. When you finish you'll apply for an ASYE job wherever you want to work. I would always recommend a couple of years in children's assessment/intervention before going into adults or looked after children, fostering/adoption or CWD. It gives a solid foundation of learning and experience that you will really benefit from.

@soupfiend yes I think the salary is a big thing. I was an unqualified band 4 before I started so this career change is to become better off financially as well as to find more rewarding work. If I was on masses more with less stress, would I choose to do it? I don't know honestly.
Finding work rewarding is great but if it was at the detriment of my own financial wellbeing, if it reduced my own quality of life, if I was more worried about bills and retirement after retraining, I don't know, would it be worth it?

My DH is a social worker. He qualified several years ago after a career change. His social work degree was paid for by his workplace through an apprenticeship scheme. He likes his job, although it can be stressful at times. He doesn't work in child protection though.

I’ve been a children’s social worker for 10 years and I (mostly) love it, and can’t imagine doing anything else.
Pros:
-i do feel like I’m making a difference - not every day or even every week but overall yes

• every day is different and it’s never boring
• theres different areas of social work to try until you find that suits you
• You can get a job almost anywhere in the country
• not stuck in an office every day

cons/

• pay is ok but not great
• Emotionally stressful and you have to find ways to manage that very quickly
• workload is high and if you’re a perfectionist then you’ll struggle as you can’t get everything done and you have to accept that
• Risk if it goes wrong and it can easily even if you’ve done everything right

Just to add I did 5 years in child protection then knew that I needed to come out of it for my mental health and try different teams. I’ll go back at some point as I enjoyed the work. You also need to find a supportive team and manager; if you don’t have that then it won’t work but that’s the case in most jobs. You also have to be prepared to say no to extra work at a certain point and have boundaries.

One area that I have seen people struggle with when they come from the corporate sector is that there's no pretence that the workload is understood or accounted for - eg workers will have a caseload within a general range but what that generates in terms of work and complexity varies massively. In corporate roles people are more used to billing for the amount of hours a task will take or refusing more work on the basis that there is no capacity, and that just doesn't happen in social work. It can be a bit emperor's new clothes when say, you don't have any visiting slots left for the next month and you get given new cases that you just have to 'squeeze in somewhere' or you're allocated to a family where both parents work and can't do appointments or meetings until 6pm and your official finish time is meant to be 5pm - it is just an expectation that you'll do it.

One basic thing to be aware of if working with children is that a major part of the job is visiting children at home, and because most families will have a school age child at home, that means most of your routine visits are done at 4pm or 4.30, sometimes later. That means getting away in the evenings is usually variable both for the time and the location, eg you rarely finish the day from your office base. Not sure how old your dependents are but in practice it's difficult to plan around say picking your own children up from after school club. Most social workers who need a fixed finishing time work in areas such as MASH or fostering which don't require you to be out at that hour - you might still catch up on paperwork after your kids have gone to bed but you can usually leave on time.

I've been in social work for a long time and I do enjoy it, it's tough and you have to find a compromise for the job and your work life balance. I enjoyed child protection but it isn't sustainable for me long term, I couldn't keep my boundaries. I've moved into another area that has it's own challenges but I can manage better (children with disabilities). Other colleagues have moved on to IRO/conference chairs, or working in CAMHS, when they've wanted something where the workload and hours are a bit more predictable.

Also you may be aware but social work in the UK is a generic qualification, with it you can work in adults or children. I did an adults pathway at uni but ended up getting my first job in children's and ended up staying in it my whole career!