There are 10,000 social workers in Scotland, part of a wider workforce of 200,000 employed in social care, and at this year’s conference of Social Work Scotland the message was they should embrace change.
“Change is challenging and sometimes neverending, but ultimately good. And ultimately what social work does,” said Jane Devine, director of the organisation that represents social work professionals.
By choosing a life that helps people to change their circumstances, could social workers help to change society too?
“Around 80% of the social care workforce is female. Is there the potential to bring about societal change in our attitudes towards women and girls, moving away from violence against women and children, to aspirations that can become gendered early in childhood? Is there the potential to start to disrupt poverty, not by looking at income, but at how society views its female population?”
These are big questions but who better to answer it than the profession that every day sees the consequences of how society works.
Jane points out: “Everyone knows what a police officer does, a teacher, a doctor or a nurse. Social work isn’t quite as easy to explain. It can be anything from the protection end of the spectrum where social workers can restrict a person’s liberty if they are very mentally ill, or remove children from their family if they are at risk of harm, to the care and support end where social workers are involved in supporting older people who need help at home; or adults with learning disabilities who want to meet new friends or secure employment.”
On s1jobs there are vacancies across this full range of social work, including within the criminal justice system, where case planning and an ability to work to deadlines are essential.
In this role you could find yourself speaking in court and working in depth as part of a criminal justice team.
Other vacancies involve being part of a first response team, identifying the immediate needs of vulnerable children and families, planning appropriate interventions and adapting care plans to suit changing needs.
None of these jobs could be easily described, yet, in these and other roles that social workers carry out, there’s the potential to bring about real changes.
We’re talking about the sort of changes that can truly transform people’s lives . . . and there are very few jobs in the world where you get the chance to do that.
Choose to make a difference with a role from the social services/housing/childcare vacancies on s1jobs.