Social workers in Scotland are happier in their jobs than their counterparts elsewhere in the UK. That’s the finding of research carried out by a newspaper and presented to an audience of social workers in Edinburgh last month.
According to the Social Lives study, more than 80% of social workers in Scotland said they enjoyed their jobs and an even higher number claimed that they were proud to be social workers.
This is fab news if you’re looking for your first social work position on s1jobs or if you’ve been in the profession for a long time but now aiming for a more senior role.
Why? Because it means you’ll be surrounded by colleagues who get immense satisfaction from their work and recognise the job they do is very worthwhile.
Of course there are challenges: caseloads are heavy, the very nature of the work involves overcoming difficulties and then there’s the problem of trying to strike a good work-life balance.
But every job has its high points and low moments – what’s different about social work is that you really do get to make a difference.
From working in the fostering and adoption sector where you could be dealing with newborn infants or kids who’ve been in care for a long time, to supporting families who find themselves in crisis, social work is on the frontline of helping with crucial personal issues.
But through your work young children can have positive futures, troubled teenagers can move forward and find stability and parents who are struggling can shed the angst and start to enjoy life with their children.
And that’s just in the family arena. As you know, there isn’t an area of life where social work doesn’t sometimes have a role to play, including working with offenders or those struggling with addiction.
But the aim is the same: to give people the support they need in order to make their own lives better.
Too often the spotlight only shines on social work when things go wrong, but what’s regularly overlooked are the small successes that happen every day and that make the world of a difference to the folks involved.
So, if you’re a social worker you’ve every reason to feel proud – it’s good to know, too, that so many are also experiencing the satisfaction that goes with the job.
For all the latest social work vacancies visit s1jobs.com