Social Worker

As a social worker, you will be required to 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 and will be working with different client groups including:

• The Elderly
• Children with disabilities
• Teenagers with mental health problems
• Young offenders
• Adults with learning disabilities, mental health problems or physical disabilities
• People with alcohol, drug or other substance misuse problems
• Refugees and asylum seekers
• Families at risk of breaking down
• Children who need to live apart from their families
• Foster carers and adopters
• Children who are at risk of abuse or neglect
• Carers

As a social worker, you may choose to specialise in a particular client group and as such your duties can include:

• Visiting clients wherever they are (at home, in a care home, hospital, hostel or prison)
• Assessing clients’ needs
• Organising support
• Making referrals to other services and agencies
• Keeping detailed records
• Attending meetings

An important part of a social worker’s role is building a professional relationship with the client so that you and your client can work together to make changes.

As well as working with clients,their families and other carers, you will also work closely with other agencies including the police, local authority departments, schools and the probation service.