Social worker looking to retrain but before or after children?

[Chad23]

I would love to hear from women who have made changes to their careers with specific examples if possible.

I am 32 years old and hoping to start TTC within the next 18 to 24 months. I am in a settled relationship but my partner is in the forces so works away from home during the week and may have to be away for longer periods of time. As such the bulk of childcare responsibilities would be met by me. Luckily we have family close by who would be very supportive.

Currently I work as a social worker but am looking to retrain to have more opportunities for development and to earn more money. I was working for the local council and in a management position however left to work for a fostering agency due to the negative working environment and high levels of stress. The more time I have spent in social work the more disillusioned I have become and I am looking to retrain. I have seen lots of threads on here where people say they have retrained but not specific examples of what they have done and how they went about this. I am also struggling with whether to try and retrain before or after having children. Any thoughts would be really appreciated!

Hmmm, could you look into doing social work with adults OP? Or hospital setting? A different type of stress but more compatible with family life and you finish work on time.

Also you get flexible working with local authorities. The private sector isn't always so flexible.
Things like paid family leave, enhanced maternity, full sick pay etc. Definitely makes life easier as a parent I should imagine?

I know you said about retraining, but I agree with the previous postsr- what about adults social work? I work in adults as a
Locum social worker, currently in a LD role. I earn £60k a year, hardly any stress, never work overtime and can move on whenever I get bored/if anything annoys me.

If not social work, are you thinking of moving completely out of social care or would you consider something similar?

How old are you OP, if you have time to train before DC, I definitely would.

Thanks for your comments! I hadn't considered adults. TippledPink how long have you been working with adults? What are the hours usually like?

@Chad23 I have worked in Adults for 8 years, first 4 years in older people's, 3 years in Triage (all adults) and the past year as a locum in Learning Disabilities. My current role is 8.30-5pm with an hour lunch, last role was 9-5 with hour lunch. Never work over my hours. If you get a permanent position and have a baby, everyone manages to negotiate 4 day weeks. Locum roles probably not so easy to find part time.

I'm retraining as a social worker and was a teacher. My kids are young primary age. I'm think as far as the study and training goes it is fine with kids because I have to be very disciplined with my time and it makes me very organised. I think had they been preschool the cost of childcare would have been a big issue. Whatever you do don't train as a teacher...I actually think Social Work is more Family friendly and less stressful 🙈

I didn't retrain but added additional qualifications and moved into providing therapy for dc, I've ended up specializing in post sex abuse therapy.

It provides a decent work life balance and makes family life possible.
I found a job in the field having done a little training first and then did a lot more alongside the job and having dc.

My DH was away a lot and I to do childcare with no nearby family.

Forgot to mention I started as a children's social worker in LA.

What about looking at child protection within schools? School hours , term time only x

I'm an OP social worker and the stress is nothing like as bad as in children's.

I'm now in management but when I was in an operational team I usually worked 8 - 5.30 on a 9 day fortnight basis. Everyone in our team worked 9 day fortnight's. In our LA there is a lot of flexibility as they find it hard to retain staff otherwise. I have a friend who is frontline LD adults and she does a compressed week, so 4 long days but every Wednesday off.

I used to work in a hospital discharge team which was quite intense but also good fun.

If someone had told me when I qualified as a SW that I would end up working with Older People I'd have laughed, but I switched when my children were small and have never regretted it.

I've also worked in a QA role, and that might be an option for you in children's services, especially if you were a team manager.

It’s reassuring to hear posters saying SW can be good. I’ve been thinking of training as a social worker, probably more interested in adults than children...

Another SW looking to retrain! Similar story, disillusioned and extremely stressed. Moved to a SW adjacent job at the expense of money (a lot less stress and lot better hours though) but after DD want to retrain to earn more money as I know I won't go back to Childrens SW !

Following with interest!

Curious to know qhat you might retrain as
I'd wondered about sw from teaching.

I do wish I'd retrained prekids but that's in an ideal world and the ship has sailed!

One of my friends retrained as a teacher and then said she wished she'd stuck to social work!

SW here. Didn’t retrain or give up my registration, but added therapeutic skills and now work in a child development centre. Employed by the nhs. Good flexibility, decent maternity leave and family friendly policies have been a godsend.

You may not necessarily need to retrain. There’s so much you can do with a social work qualification. Especially with management experience.

I’m thinking developing my counselling skills and maybe looking into term time school based counselling or educational welfare posts as my kids get older.

I would add that, in my experience, having worked in lots of different teams, the older adults team was the busiest. Maybe because I live in an area that is popular for retirement and we do have a lot of elderly residents. Something to consider.

Supporting foster Carers for private agencies looks like it pays well if you don’t mind working outside of the public sector.

It's really good to know I'm not alone and there are also people who have made SW work!

In terms of the reasons why I want to leave SW it is mostly due to the constant change in terms of the direction the LA wants to go in (always new policies and management speak) and the change in leadership teams who want to get good results for ofsted by removing all the good practice previously in place. There has been a mass exodus where I currently work and a number of children have not had allocated SW's. At one time this would have made me work even harder to make a difference but then when you've put in so much time and energy to try and improve the outcomes for children and families only to have them reallocated to another SW so you can have more complex cases it becomes very frustrating and demoralising. This on top of the long hours and the emotional impact of the work has become very difficult to manage.

I had always wanted to get into therapeutic social work and have looked into counselling but I am really wary of putting more money and time into studying if I then struggle to find a job where I can utilise the skills. For those who have developed their therapeutic skills how did you go about it?

Thanks again for all your views on this - it really is helpful!

I could have written your post. I feel I've made huge mistake being a social worker. Its swolled up nearly 20 years of my life and I hate it.

@CurlyTop1980

I could have written your post. I feel I've made huge mistake being a social worker. Its swolled up nearly 20 years of my life and I hate it.

I am sorry to hear this. Have you had any thoughts as to how you can move into something else?