What Does Social Work Involve?
Social work involves working with people who are going through a very difficult time or who are excluded from society. The general aim of social work is to help people to help themselves out of bad situations that they find themselves in. As a social worker you would have to build relationships with the users of the service, their family, and friends, acting variously as an advocate, a guide, and a friend. You will often have to work closely with hospitals, schools, the probation service, voluntary organisations, and the police as well as with your clients.
Over half of all social work professionals work with vulnerable young people and their families. Other groups you may find yourself working with include people with mental health difficulties, the elderly, persistent truants, young offenders, people with alcohol and drug problems, and people with disabilities and learning difficulties.
Due to government legislation intended to increase integration between social work services and the health service, social workers often have to work in multidisciplinary teams with health professionals. One example of this type of task would involve sitting on the board of a child protection hearing. Other common social work tasks include writing up assessments, conducting interviews with service users and their families in order to assess and review their situation, training other social workers, preparing reports for legal action and giving evidence in court, making recommendations to clients, and in some situations making decisions for them, and making referrals to other agencies.
Social work can be very difficult sometimes, but it can also be one of the most rewarding jobs around, particularly if you enjoy, and have a capacity for, helping people. In order to become a social worker, you have to first gain the relevant qualifications. There are a number of routes to these qualifications. You can sit a dedicated undergraduate social work degree on a part time or full time basis, or if you already have a degree, you can take a postgraduate masters qualification in social work, which is a quicker route into the profession. If you want to get more of an idea of the kind of jobs that would be available to you upon completion of your degree, it might help to look at some job advertisements. In particular, the social care jobs section of the Guardian Jobs website features hundreds of vacancies with social services around the UK, and is regularly updated.