Please recommend me a new job!

[NewCareerHelp123]

At the end of mat leave and having a bit of a career crisis. I’m returning to work part time 30 hours, 4 days per week but ideally I would like to do 3 days a week. Currently work for the NHS in the mental health sector, have experience with working age adults, dementia and secure services. I have experience in community rehab, running and supporting groups, organising events, creating resources, managing challenging behaviour. I’ve got an NVQ in health and social care and a degree in human biology that I’ve never used.

I’m completely open to all and any suggestions for career changes! Not set on staying in mental health although I do enjoy it. I’d like to still do something where I feel like I’m making a difference. Ideally 3 days a week. I’d like to have the flexibility to work from home at times. I can’t really afford to take time off to study and retrain. Feeling a bit defeated in the NHS and would also like slightly better pay!

Hope to hear some suggestions! TIA

There's seems to be so much demand for mental health services at the moment could you do private counselling / support type work? Work from home, pick your own hours, charge your own rates.....

@emmathedilemma

There's seems to be so much demand for mental health services at the moment could you do private counselling / support type work? Work from home, pick your own hours, charge your own rates.....

OP isn’t a counsellor and while technically anyone can say they are, ethically they would need to spend time training and doing voluntary work for experience.

Strategic planning and commissioning role (mental health) in Health Board or Local Authority. Strategic planning/ policy role (mental Health) in same orgs or civil service or a charity.

Residential child care worker? Depending on your area they might employ relief staff so you could gain experience and see if you enjoy it before making the career change. Your experience and qualifications would be suitable to get you in then further training available once in post. Private sector is easier to get into but pay is significantly lower than local authority.

I have seen a recent advertisement for an Advisor within Women’s Aid, which was 24 hours per week, £25,000 FTE (pro rata). You have quite a lot of experience, although not a counselling qualification as such, but I think you have a lot to offer and would certainly be considered if you applied for something like this.

Research administrator? It's quite challenging work but there is loads of interesting research in dementia and mental health at the moment? The jobs are usually on jobs.nhs.uk.

I was going to say same as @alloutofcareunits : Support Worker for young people in residential care homes. I don't know what pay scale you were on previously, but the pay isn't great. You can definitely work part time though. A lot of the training is done online & you can do it at home & claim for the hours, so basically that is working from home.

Do not support workers have to do sleep overs? Op is just off maternity leave so cannot see that being ideal.

@crimsonlake yes they do, however, shift work can be quite handy with an infant, depending on childcare arrangements. I did it when my daughter was a baby and it meant I was often at work when she was in bed so not missing out and I was off during the day so could do toddler groups etc. I also did alternate weekends, DH was off at the weekend which helped for childcare too

Thanks all! Some interesting ideas to have a look at. I’ve done residential work with adults in the past and shift work and although I enjoyed it and it worked okay with childcare arrangements at the time, I just can’t make shifts work anymore. Definitely going to have a look at research based jobs so thanks for that @PermanentTemporary!

Have you tried looking at the civil derive, more specifically the prison service or ministry of justice? I currently work as a Civil Servant and there are plenty of external jobs going on Civil Service Jobs, also you have great benefits working for the civil service. I would recommend signing up to Civil Service job alerts cause it's always useful to see the jobs!

Apologies for the typo I meant Civil Service!

Go on charity jobs. Plenty of WFH roles with you skill set.

Hi, just returned to say that not all support work roles require you to sleep ins. There are often staff who like to do the sleep ins, so they do all of them & those who can’t or don’t want to don’t have to. I know what you mean about shifts though, they’re not always conveniently timed!

Social prescriber sounds like something you'd be more than qualified for. They're rolling them out in my local CCG to try and reduce the non medical burden that GPs have with patients.

@Teaandcakeordeath83

I work with SPs, and not one of them feels like they truly make a difference which is a shame. Lots of referring to charities who have stopped taking on referrals due to the sheer amount etc.

@HariboMaroon. That's such a shame. I suppose the lack of funding just creates all these problems though.

Case manager?

Project officer, rising to project manager in healthcare (nhs)

School family liaison worker/ wellbeing support officer

Social prescribing link worker

Health coach (online health companies who do mental health apps etc)

I don’t know much about mental health care/nhs roles but I’m in tech sector, which need people like you who understand people/ services. So think you’ll be in demand if you want to move on from f2f health.