Social worker job profile | Prospects.ac.uk. A caring and patient demeanour will be vital for anyone considering a career as a social worker As a social worker, you’ll support individuals and their families through difficult times and help to find solutions to their problems. Your aim will be to improve outcomes in people’s live. This could be by making sure that vulnerable people, including children and adults, are safeguarded from harm or by helping people to live more independently with the support they need.
You will need to maintain professional relationships and act as a guide and advocate. You’ll work in a variety of settings, which can include schools, hospitals or on the premises of other public sector and voluntary organisations. You may have a social work assistant working alongside you and will also work closely with other professionals in health and social care. Types of social worker Many social workers work with young people and their families. Responsibilities As a social worker, you’ll need to: Salary Working hours. Social worker: job description. What does a social worker do? Typical employers | Qualifications and training | Key skills Social workers work with specific groups of clients, including children, the elderly and families in crisis, and help them to solve the problems they're facing.
Generally, social workers specialise in either adult or child social care. Clients may be vulnerable or in difficult situations, so social workers need to be able to work under pressure and understand other people's viewpoints. Typical duties include: visiting clients and assessing their needsarranging appropriate care, resources or benefitsliaising with relatives, colleagues and other professionalswriting reportsattending or contributing towards court cases. Unsociable hours are common, and in certain settings this may include shift work. Typical employers of social workers Local authoritiesCharities and voluntary organisationsPrivate organisations such as nursing homesSpecialist social work agencies Qualifications and training required. Social worker job information. Page Content Social worker Hours30-40 per weekStarting salary£19,500 + per year As a qualified social worker you’ll work with individuals and families and help them to improve their lives.
If you want to make a positive difference in the community, a career in social work could be for you. You’ll need tact, patience and understanding. You’ll need to gain a social work qualification that is approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). WorkDesc Work activities You’ll provide advice and support to vulnerable individuals and families, including children. Depending on your work, or caseload, you could support a wide range of social service users or clients, including: children and parents facing difficult circumstancesolder peoplepeople with physical or learning disabilitiespeople with mental health problemsyoung people in carehomeless peoplepeople moving towards independent livingpeople with drug, alcohol or substance dependencyfoster carers and adoptive parents HoursDesc IncomeDesc.
Social worker. Social workers work with individuals and families to help live more successfully. This page has information on the role of a social worker, including entry requirements and skills needed. Working life As a social worker, you will work with people to find solutions to their problems. This may be helping to protect vulnerable people from harm or abuse or supporting people to live independently. You will engage with clients, their families and others around them. You'll work with different client groups including: the elderlychildren with disabilitiesteenagers with mental health problemsyoung offendersadults with learning disabilities, mental health problems or physical disabilitiespeople with alcohol, drug or other substance misuse problemsrefugees and asylum seekersfamilies at risk of breaking downchildren who need to live apart from their familiesfoster carers and adopterschildren who are at risk of abuse or neglectcarers You may specialise in a particular client group.
Who will I work with? Fostering social worker: Keeley | Prospects.ac.uk. Demanding case loads and limited resources are part and parcel of Keeley's challenging yet rewarding career. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills plus emotional resilience are essentials she draws on every day I became interested in training to be a social worker through my previous jobs working with children and families in the Connexions service, in a pupil referral unit and as a special educational needs coordinator in primary schools.
The Step Up to Social Work programme allowed me to attend university while being employed. The course provided a good balance of theory and practice. Experience gained from my previous employment and placements has played a key role in helping me gain relevant skills for my current job. My second placement involved bringing children into care, which led to my interest in fostering. I'm now HCPC registered and working as a supervising social worker in the Family Placement Team (Fostering) for a local authority. How to become a Social Worker: Summary of panel event. This is the second post in our 5-part mini-series summarising the Public Affairs and Community Engagement Panel event we ran on 11th March 2015.
Other posts in the series can be viewed by clicking on the ‘PACE Event’ tag either at the bottom of this post or in the tag cloud on the right. What is social work? Social work is any work carried out by a qualified person which sets out to support and help people who are suffering in the community. It aims to contribute towards the safeguarding of vulnerable people, while improving the quality of their lives. Issues can be around anything including; finance, substance abuse, old age, isolation, mental health, abuse, housing, abandonment and so on. Range of roles and typical entry points for graduates The typical role people think about when looking at this sector is that of a Social Worker. There are two main routes to qualification; the academic route and routes which combine work and study. Academic route: Combining work and study: Like this:
High flyers urged to move into social work | Society. A programme to attract top graduates and high flyers considering a career change into social work will be launched by the government on Monday in an effort to improve mental health support services. The £1.6m initiative aims to attract 80 to 100 recruits into mental health roles at a time when NHS and local councils are facing an increasing demand for mental health services. It aims to change perceptions of social work, which has not traditionally been seen as a high-status career choice: in 2011/12 less than 10% of the intake to social work master’s degrees came from the highly selective Russell group of universities.
Those taking part will be put into frontline roles almost immediately as part of the two-year programme, Think Ahead, for which candidates will need at least a 2.1 degree. Frances Turner, a Cambridge graduate who is currently a senior social worker in mental health services, said that she couldn’t have chosen a more fulfilling career than social work. Downloads. Social Work Careers | British Association of Social Workers. Thinking about a career in social work? Read our FAQ to find out more. What is social work? Social work is a profession that is centred around people - from babies through to older people.
The BASW Code of Ethics defines social work using the international definition of social work. Social workers work with individuals and families to help improve outcomes in their lives. Employment Social workers work in a variety of organisations. Registered as a social worker To be a practicing social worker, social workers must be registered. Each of the four UK countries has a different regulator. Social workers work with a variety of people including: Social workers usually have a ‘caseload’ – a number of cases of individuals/families who they work with at any one time. Post-graduates who have obtained a 2:1 or above in previous studies can apply for a fast-track route into social work whereby you train on the job.
Why become a social worker? School or college students Qualifications Social work degree. B1 Susan Riley CS. Social Work Careers. Social work covers a wide range of different specialisms, but two of the most important are: Residential social work. The care and supervision of a group of persons (e.g. children, elderly people, the mentally or physically handicapped, people suffering from alcohol or drug addiction, etc) in a residential home or school. Field social work. Dealing with problems of individuals or groups, e.g. child care, mental welfare, finding foster homes, advising those adopting children. Qualities required include: A desire to help the disadvantaged Ability to communicate clearly and effectively Ability to establish a rapport with all kinds of people Concern for others' feelings without becoming emotionally over-involved Willingness to work outside the normal 9 - 5 pattern You will need a degree in social work to become a social worker. Some employers, especially local authority social services departments, will sponsor students on these courses.
Social Worker Profile RESIDENTIAL SOCIAL WORK. Links. Work experience: a crucial means of getting into graduate social work careers. You will need to get some relevant work experience under your belt before embarking on a postgraduate social work course. Prior work experience will give you insight into whether you are really suited to social work as well as helping you to develop relevant skills and broadening your understanding. It will also enable you to make practical sense of the taught content of the course. The length of experience required by most social work course providers varies from around four months to a year. You will need to check individual entry requirements carefully, including whether the work experience should have been undertaken before interview or by the start of the course. A wide range of work experience is generally acceptable, including paid work in statutory, voluntary or private settings, or voluntary work in any social care setting.
A portfolio of different sorts of experience can be useful. What is relevant experience? Social care work is also relevant. Your graduate career options in social work. Career areas in social work for graduates: adoption and fostering | asylum seekers | children and families | domestic violence | HIV/AIDS | substance and drug abuse | housing and homelessness | learning disabilities | mental health | neighbourhood renewal | older people | physical and sensory impairment | youth justice Social workers support children and adults with many different needs and often liaise closely with other professionals, such as the police or mental health services. In your career as a graduate social worker you could specialise in providing services to older people, people with learning disabilities or mental health issues, or asylum seekers. Social workers’ clients may also be affected by domestic violence, homelessness or HIV/AIDS, or by a complex combination of factors.
Other career paths open to you include neighbourhood renewal work and services for children and families, which seek to promote the welfare of children in need. Adoption and fostering Asylum seekers. Deciding which social work employer offers you the right graduate career. No matter how good your course was, or how successful your practice placements, doing social work for real is likely to be a different kettle of fish. It is therefore important to get the right match between your own goals and aspirations and those of your employer. Whatever your interests, there is plenty of choice and scope. However, the culture, structure and organisation of social care service providers vary enormously.
It is well worth spending some time considering your options carefully. The statutory sector Local authorities hold statutory responsibilities for providing social care to the populations they serve, and qualified social workers in this setting work within a detailed policy and legislative framework. A large portion of the job is to make the best use of often-scarce resources and to liaise with other professionals and service providers. The voluntary sector There is a significant difference between the culture and organisation of the statutory and voluntary sectors. 6407-BARCLAY6407-BARCLAYSocial work fast-track schemes: what we do and don't know. Photo: Image Broker/ RexShutterstock By Judy Cooper, Rachel Schraer and Andy McNicoll David Cameron’s government is changing the face of social work education.
Fast-track social work schemes will get £100m to expand so they can produce 25% of all new children’s social workers by 2018. At the moment the programmes account for less than 10% of all social work trainees. Fast-track programmes split opinion. Ministers praise them as offering “exemplary” training that produces trainees ready for social work practice. Social work leaders voice concerns that the government is creating a ‘two tier’ social work education system and ploughing in funding to programmes that have yet to be fully evaluated. Amid all the noise, what are these programmes and how do the claims being made about them stack up? What are fast-track programmes? Step Up to Social Work This graduate recruitment scheme started in 2010. Frontline Frontline started training social workers in 2014. Think Ahead How are the schemes funded? A graduate's guide to researching social care employers. How does Frontline differ from other routes into social work? Frontline’s graduate programme is focused on child protection social work, and more broadly on disadvantages that this causes, such as a lack of educational opportunities.
Josh MacAlister, CEO at Frontline, explains, ‘We looked at where social workers were most needed and the response that we got time and time again was that we needed more highly-skilled social workers in frontline child protection work.’ Frontline has been designed to appeal to graduates who have the qualities to make good social workers, but who may currently be unfamiliar with opportunities in the sector. Frontline’s social work programme does not stipulate any particular subjects that students need to have studied before applying, and seeks to appeal to students by speeding up the process in which they qualify as social workers. You need at least a 2.1 in your undergraduate degree (predicted or obtained) to be eligible to apply.
The structure of the Frontline programme. Making applications for graduate social work jobs? How to stand out. Social care employers use a variety of application methods depending on whether they are in the public, private or voluntary sector. Locals authority recruiters typically use application forms as this makes it straightforward to comply with equal opportunities guidelines.
Whichever method of recruitment an employer is using, it’s vital to show in detail that you’re the right person for the job. Make sure you give yourself time There has been particularly tough competition for social work positions in recent years, especially for roles with local authorities. Take time over your applications to give yourself the best possible chance of success. Don’t leave them to the last minute. Match yourself to the person specification The person specification sets out the competencies needed for the role, and you need to address each of these to show that you are a good match. Customise every application and never copy across sections from previous applications for other roles. Be clear and succinct. How to get hired by Frontline: the new graduate recruiter in social work. Job done: interviews for graduate roles in social work. Social work. Documents and Publications from TCSW. Training and development during your career as a social worker.
Highest ranking Unis for Social Work Degrees United-Kingdom. Your guide to Social Work Bursaries 2017 18 (V1) 09. Students Social Work Bursaries NHS Business Services Authority. Students Student Bursaries NHS Business Services Authority. Workforce social workers Standards of proficiency Social workers in England 1 feb 2017. Social Work Jobs UK - Social Worker opportunites in the UK. Children's services: Children's social care. HCPC - Homepage (Health and Care Professions Council)