missSunny - im sure you would stand a good chance of working as a social work support officer (or whatever the current term is)
I would suggest trying to get some voluntary work, even just a few hours, in various different area's of social work. you may think you want to work in a certain area but then find that after having a bit of a taster of a different sector you want to continue in that field. i thought i wanted to work within the looked after children team. i did some volunteering within the Yot and was hooked.
I wish you the very best of luck with your study.
Lisa i totally agree with you that there are women out there that simply wont put their children first. they put up with the abuse and will not accepot the damage that is done to the children. and yes in these cases the children probably are better off within foster care.
However it seems that with many of the old school SW's i have come across, both as a vitcim and within my professional work, they have no real expereince or training in thsi field and so they have the very ignorant "it serves you right for letting him hit you" point of view.
training is vital. you wouldn't put a nurse in charge of a heart op. she may be excellent at stitches and taking blood but you wouldn't want her fixing your major organs.
Dv should be an area of expertise in itself. its a massive problem and causes many issues for children both during the violence and in their adult lives.
I also agree wholeheartedly with Dittany. DV is assult. why its treated as anything other than that is beyond me. why is it ok to hit your partner but not a strnager in the street? if my x had done what he did to me to a woman in the street he'd be in the papers villified by the country and wouldn#t see daylight for a long time.
but because i had children with him he has never been charged with anything other than domestic disturbance and is given access to our children.
the system is more than flawed, its failing.