To Train As A Social Worker At 40?

[FanOfWicked]

Is it silly of me to consider a complete career change and to want to go into a role that so many people seem to hate?
I want to do something more meaningful and actually help in life although I understand it is a very tough job to do.

The degree would consist of a three year apprenticeship with a mixture of studying and placements.

Totally agree we constantly never have enough resource to do the job in normal working hours, I have never found the work or people I’m helping an issue, I think people don’t realise the sheer turnover of social work staff these days in both adults and children’s and volume of locums (some of whom are fabulous but are exactly that temps who come and go!), this hugely impacts on the service people receive, cohesion of teams and learning for newer staff. Alongside more remote working I think it’s getting harder for students to get a good experience when training in teams that can be quite transient. There are ways around this eg work in a short term or specialist team and find one where staff turnover the lowest. I have and we all have years of experience as we have all moved ourselves here! But you will need to be able to get through the training first to get to this point.

Sorry that’s what I’d be applying for. Work with gaining a degree. It has not said how it is split.

Go for it. You'll bring a different slant to the role with that added bit of life experience that you have. Don't be put off by the negative comments about SW here. SW navigate a fine line between supporting and protecting, and trying to get the best out of our broken public services. They can't fix everything but good ones can build really effective relationships with their families and that can be a lifeline to a family in need.

I did an Environmental Health degree at 45. Started practicing at 49, it has changed my life for the better, don't let age deter you.

It will do no harm in applying for the apprenticeship. If you are not successful, I'd suggest changing jobs to an environment that works with children, then apply again at the next intake.

I know someone who went from a pastoral role in school to a SW apprenticeship. I know someone else who was an Early Help Worker then went on to a SW apprenticeship.

It's usually just child SW that are hated in my experience but there's a huge amount of SW careers outside of CYPSS.

It is better if you have some life experience ie age as the clients will be more likely to take you seriously. Do it. You will never be out of of work, there are so many niche roles within social work- you will find the one that suits you.

Go for it! My last ASYE turned 40 the month she started and she was amazing. Nothing replaces life experience! And WRT your belief that you'll be hated - really don't worry about that. I'll be honest and say if you live in an area of high deprivation where a higher proportion of people have social work involvement then you may find it a bit uncomfortable to talk about what you do and you'll be incensed by the opinions of the occasional random online but generally speaking if people feel hate towards us they keep it to themselves. And you'll make friends with colleagues and end up with lots of social workers in your social group anyway!

I changed my career just before I turned 40. It was the best decision. You still have 30 working years ahead of you, just think about that. Your age will be an advantage - more resilience, more life experiences - all very important when working in this industry.
Why would you be hated by everyone? You mean clients or colleagues? Or the general public? I work for the NHS, there is very little public support at the moment. I don’t care. I know that I make a difference to the vast majority of patients on my caseload and it only takes one “thank you” email to remind me why I do what I do.
As my granny told me when I decided to retrain “time will pass anyway whether you decide to do something with your life or not”. Go for it!

Many sw children with disabilities. None bad .many extremely helpful. Some have to say no to things because of funding but they have all Bern super understanding

Our local authority is struggling to replace the social workers who leave due to burnout. As in, almost every week someone else leaves and they're certainly not replacing anyone that quickly.

This isn't a situation where there's a fully staffed department who just have more work than they can handle and need to hire a few extra hands. It's a department who couldn't manage the workload even if they were fully staffed, but actually they're 20% understaffed with few replacements on the horizon.

I can't speak for adult social care, but children's social care is not a field I would ever work in myself. I left teaching because of similar concerns, but social work is even worse.

Well done! Do you mind me asking what age group?

You most definitely aren't too old. The experience of life you have by 40 is invaluable, particularly if you have lived experience of disability, or you have language/ cultural skills that would equip you to work effectively with marginalised groups.
Some admin workers have valuable experience of talking to, helping, dealing with all different types of people; but entry onto social work degrees does require experience with working with people who are vulnerable and disadvantaged.
Most Social Workers train by doing a full time degree and take a student loan to pay the £30,000 fees and work alongside and/or take a loan to pay for living expenses.
Council apprenticeships are usually really competetive as they have a large pool of experienced people wanting to qualify as Social Workers for the increased choice of roles and higher pay.
If you feel drawn to Social Work, is it worth trying to find a social care role such as Woking in a children's home, HCA on a children's ward, etc first? You won't find many qualified social workers who don't bring significant experience of direct work to their training.
Good luck with your next step.

I’m teaching secondary school maths. It’s full on, but worth it.

Go for it. I'm a social worker (now in a more management role) in children's and I love it. It is a hard job and you have to be prepared to routinely work beyond your hours in a lot of roles in children's, but if you can find a balance and have a good team it's worth it.

Many people retrain in social work after having their own kids so your age isn't unusual. Also as a bit of a 'back up' if you do enjoy working in children's but find the work life balance challenging there are more options these days - more councils are allowing part time or condensed hours which helps. If at a later date you really feel it's to much you could switch to family support roles in future which don't require a social work degree and don't pay as well but are still likely paid better than admin, and you'd easily get them with a SW qualification. Not to say to aim for that but I know some people have changed to it because while still challenging jobs they tend to feel more rewarding - doing a lot of direct work with children, delivering food parcels, supervising contact but without the report writing and pressure. Other friends have used the qualification to move into roles managing children's homes. Social work doesn't mean you have to work in a safeguarding/court role or duty team forever! I work with children in the care system which is challenging but it I love it and wouldn't change it.

The degree apprenticeship is definitely for people working in related jobs. Your job is considered your first placement. In my LA it's open to people working in 'unqualified' social care roles. You definitely couldn't do it if you weren't in a relevant role to start with. The places are very competitive.

On a BA you do three placements within services that you would sign post clients to. Or within a supporting service. Your final placement is more with SW. The training is set by the Social Work Council. They set training standards, so although there are fast track/employer led schemes, they still have to meet a set criteria. I got out of C&F SW while going through the menopause, which isn't uncommon. Have you read around the processes used by SWs and what they actually do? The plans they write are often supervised by family support etc, your plan is as only as helpful what your budget allows and how good your support services are. What's shocking is the lack of support for child rape/sexual assault victims. A parent can sexual abuse/kill their child but you've got to work with them to possibly keep another baby. There's a lot of children given back by the court, against the wishes of the SW and who end up dead or severely disabled. The severe disabilities don't get the coverage that the deaths do. During the previous government's terms, we wondered who the service was benefiting. I'd write down how you want to help and see if it comes under the remit of Social Work (and not the support services).

For some reason loads of my friends are all turning 40 this or next year, 80% of them have just retrained or are retaining currently. Do it!

Also I don't think people questioning the op about the course is helpful, there are different routes into social work (more than ever in eng & Wales) but the way that apprenticeship or sponsored schemes are run and the entry requirements vary across different local authorities. As long as it's a course that allows you to register with the appropriate professional body at the end of it it's worth considering, and getting some advice from the provider about what they're looking for.

In my local authority there are apprenticeship schemes that are available to those already working for the local authority, they used to only take people in similar roles such as family support, but due to the pressures our family support or early help staff rarely want to apply (their rates are also quite good, albeit not as high as SW) So it's more common to have people from non related roles but can demonstrate relevant life experience/interest.

Absolutely not unreasonable. My sister is doing a degree to become a social worker, she loves working in adult social care, but as part of her degree had to work in child social care for a while which she didn't like. Her speciality is adult care luckily

It's totally doable. I know a woman in her early 40s who's training to become a nurse and she had mostly admin experience prior to starting the course.

Definitely not too old. And probably life experience and experience of managing competing priorities in a heavy workload is a massive asset.

If you will be based in one LA check it out carefully - staff retention, what current staff say. They vary massively. I am in health but a role that works closely with sws across three LAs and the differences can be night and day.

It is a legally important role. Done well it makes a massive difference. It is true that so much is proceduralised for clients it can feel like box ticking and if a family needs early help and the local offer is rubbish it can be very disheartening as the actual sw cannot do much about that.

But in all caring professions the how of the role matters too - whether we're nurses, doctors, psychologists, occupational therapists, social workers we're seeing people at some of the toughest stages in their lives, when they are vulnerable and easily hurt. If you can make ensuring their interactions with you are still helpful your highest priority you can still make a difference.

You are correct. A social work apprenticeship means you are employed by a local authority or other organisation who manage your work/placements and allow you to attend the course on day or block release. It's not possible to apply direct to a course because you first need to be employed by the training provider who nominates you to be interviewed for the degree.

Except if she's misunderstood the way to get on the course it is relevant. To do an apprenticeship you need to be employed within an associated role.

I'm on a SW apprenticeship right now and I'm over 50! Age is not a factor, I just need to commit to staying at the LA for two years post qualifying.

However I already worked for the LA as a 'adult social care practitioner' (basically 95% same job as a qualified worker but less pay). Others from children's who are doing this work as support workers.

It's 4 days at work and 1 day university each week plus loads of extra study. You need to be working in a relevant role as there are direct observations almost from the start and you learn 'on the job'. You can't do this while working in admin elsewhere!

I suggest getting some kind of support worker role in the LA and applying to their scheme.