Clare Guiry remembers clearly the first time she realised she had made the right decision to give up her job running a children’s entertainment business to become a social worker.
She was working in adult social care, and the 96-year-old woman she was supporting wanted to move out of the care home where she was living, craving a more independent life. “Everybody thought it wasn’t a good idea but I helped her move into a flat where she had carers on site,” says Guiry, who works for Oxfordshire county council. “Now she’s so happy. It’s not that she was unhappy with care at the care home – she told me she just wanted to live somewhere where she could make herself a cup of tea without having to ask somebody else to do it.”
Guiry, 44, who qualified two years ago after completing a professional postgraduate diploma, says helping people to get what they need to have a better life, or continue the good life they already have, is at the heart of being a social worker.
That’s a view shared by Emily Bell, a social worker in a child protection and court team for Cornwall council. “I think a lot of people who go into social work would describe themselves as ‘fixers’ – which was definitely the case for me,” says 46-year old Bell. “But what’s become clear to me when working with families is not to come in and fix things, but rather work in partnership to achieve sustainable changes that work for them.”
Bell, who initially joined Cornwall as a family support worker, qualified as a social worker last July after completing an Open University professional postgraduate diploma, funded by the council. “I knew Cornwall had this scheme where I could work for them and train as a social worker simultaneously,” she says.
Being able to earn while learning was key for career-changer Sarah Ritchie, who is just months into her three-year level 6 degree apprenticeship in social work with Oxfordshire county council working in adult care.
“The apprenticeship has allowed me to earn while learning, which is its obvious selling point,” says Ritchie, 44, who gave up a career as a police community support worker. “I‘ve been able to do what I want to do without coming out of employment or spending time at university. If I wasn’t doing the apprenticeship, the change in career would not have been an option.”
Today, a degree-level apprenticeship is becoming an established route to professional qualification. According to latest figures from the professional regulator Social Work England, there are now 36 level 6 (undergraduate) and five level 7 (postgraduate) approved apprenticeship courses in England.
An apprenticeship offers an alternative to the undergraduate or postgraduate degree, which has been the traditional option. Postgraduate fast track courses are also available. Step up to social work – a 14-month programme run in partnership with local authorities – is one option, as well as the children’s services three-year leadership development programme Approach Social Work, which used to be called Frontline. For those interested in a career as a mental health social worker Think Ahead offers a two-year scheme.
A professional social work qualification opens the door to career options across the public and voluntary sectors, including working with young offenders and supporting people with drug and alcohol problems. It’s also a way into policy work or academia. Rasheed Pendry, who qualified more than 20 years ago, says: “There are so many more career paths now compared to when I qualified.”
Pendry is director of children’s social care at Wandsworth council, which last year was recognised for the exemplary support it offers its social workers when it was named supportive social work employer of the year in the Social Worker of the Year awards. Pendry says a factor in its success is its permanent workforce.
Unlike some authorities, which rely heavily on agency social workers to help fill vacancies, Wandsworth has few agency workers – and those it does have have been with the authority long-term. Pendry is confident that new Department for Education guidelines, which aim to stem the tide of agency staff and provide a more stable workforce, will have a national impact. “Children and families need consistency and don’t want to have to retell their story,” he says. “We should treat families with the respect they deserve and give them a consistent workforce.”
Pendry’s decades-long career includes working in the voluntary sector supporting ex-offenders, time as a family therapist in children’s services and as a specialist in NHS child and adolescent mental health services. Does he have any regrets about the decision he took in the 1990s to become a social worker? “No,” he says. “I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to make the same career choice today. It’s the best job in the world, where no two days are the same and you can make a real difference.”
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