Social work

[stripes416]

Hello all, im hoping for some peoples opinions and experiences of being a social worker. This is something that I've wanted to do for years but honestly I have been a little apprehensive for a number of reasons. I have worked in childcare for over 10 years and have worked with families in the past too. I'm currently in my last year of studying for my degree that centres around childhood and youth and I'm just trying to figure out what to do after I graduate. I have seen a frontline social work programme which is fully funded and you get paid for the two years you study and then employed by your social council on the second year. I've been looking into this but I know a lot of people are very stressed in the social work world and I'm very worried about committing so much time to getting the masters and then finding that im just not up to it. I would obviously be fully prepared for a lot of hard work and a stressful job. Just wondered what others views on the Job were really, it would be great to hear others experiences

I worked with loads of SWs when I was a DV advisor. Stressed out, huge complicated caseloads full of families with massive problems, and often no willingness to really get stuck in and change their lives, and then something happens and guess who gets blamed??

It does depend tho. I have a friend who qualified, worked all the weekends to pay off the loans for her studies, then became a senior SW and is now lecturing is SW at a local university. Massive ££.

But me, I did hard core high risk stuff for about 17 years and I am not the same. Burnt out, cynical, cannot hear more bullshit about drinking, heroin, stealing, lying around doing nothing and wondering why depressed.

It takes heart for these roles, and you give your heart, you dig deep to try and reach people, you tolerate and work so so hard - but it's a never ending conveyor belt of trying to help people who just throw shit at you.

And then the media - NEVER are the child killing parents in the frame, it's always 'the SW must learn lessons.' But the SW aren't killing the kids.

Jaded yes, I'm afraid. I now care for autistic people and LOVE it.

I echo what @something2say says. I’ve been qualified for over 15 years, love what o do but it’s so hard. Clients, families, just so difficult. Even in adult services, it’s still a never ending round of assessments, court reports, squabbling families, addiction, threats.

On top of your case work there is progression, so you will be expected to study further to become a practice educator so that you can have students, not sure what else on children’s but in adults you can also train to be a Best Interest assessor or an advanced mental health practitioner.

So once you have your qualification and have practiced for a few years you could move direction to either teaching or self employment.

It’s not all bad, but social work today looks very different to when I trained. Burn out rate is high, repeat burn out is also a thing.
Think carefully as IMO social work is not a life long career these days.

Hi OP, there was a similar thread about this back in mid-October. Might be worth searching and having a read. (Sorry I'm not sure how to link previous threads). I'll copy my response to that thread, I hope it helps:

I work in Youth Justice so work alongside social workers daily. Before this role, multiple family based roles including front line child protection. I went through a phase of wanting to be a social worker but after years of seeing the reality, changed my mind. And not going into social work was the best thing I ever did.
Social workers in my area are under immense pressure, most are/have been on long term sick for goodness knows how long. Most social workers are unbelievably overworked, given unrealistic caseloads alongside impossible deadlines. It's all a big mess if I'm being honest.

That said, there are many forms of social work - adults, children, through care, mental health social workers. But I would imagine it's all very much of the same in terms of issues.

Sorry if this post is all doom and gloom but there's very few positives I can share. The rewarding nature of the job and safeguarding and protecting our most vulnerable children and young people is just massively overshadowed by all the bad stuff sadly :(

I also don't think it's a very family friendly job in the slightest. Of course this is just my opinion and I welcome any social worker to come and tell me otherwise - it would be nice to hear more positives!

I hope this helps and good luck in any decision you make.

I’m a social worker. I do like it but the stress is big at times. But very rewarding. Most of my team on sick half the time. It’s a vicious cycle due to being understaffed and overworked.

Burn out is common but you can get trapped in with the salary and benefits.

my team is family friendly though x

I'm nearing 3 years into my career as a Social worker and am still loving it so far despite the pressures. Yes it's hard work and you see and hear some horrible things, there are late nights and never enough time to complete the never ending admin tasks but I couldn't see myself doing anything else now. You do need a supportive family to help especially if you have kids yourself but there are a wide variety of roles it's not all child protection you could work in fostering or mash which is more family friendly and you can manage your commitments better. Also adult social work is a complete different challenge but I've never done this so can't comment however have heard it's easier in some respects than children's.