Roles in social care
Social Worker
Social workers help people to live within their local communities by helping them find solutions to their problems. Social work also involves engaging not only with clients themselves but their families and friends. It also often involves working in partnership with health services, the police service, schools and many organisations in the voluntary sector.
Social workers tend to specialise in either Adult or Children's Services.
In Adult's Services, roles include working with:
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people with mental health needs;
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people with learning disabilities;
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older people;
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people with physical or sensory disabilities.
In Children's Services, roles include:
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providing assistance and advice to keep families together;
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investigating allegations of abuse and supporting victims of abuse;
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working with children placed in foster care or in children's homes;
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adoption work;
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providing support to young people leaving care.
Social Care Worker
Social care workers provide help to people in a range of different settings. This help can be very practical or quite intense depending on the circumstances. Social care workers provide support, working in residential and day care units and in people's homes. You'll be given training in the skills you need to do the job well and there'll be plenty of opportunities to acquire more skills and qualifications such as NVQs.
There are also a wide range of jobs working with children, young people and their families, people with disabilities and their carers. Typical job titles include community care worker, family support worker, key worker and care assistant, but there are many others. There are thousands of people who work in social care either in a local authority such as Staffordshire, a small business (for example a privately owned residential home) or a voluntary organisation.
Here's a brief guide to the different areas of work.
Home Care
Community care workers provide support and care for vulnerable older people and people with disabilities so that they can remain in their own homes.
Day Centre Assistants
Day centre assistants give practical support and provide high quality care to elderly service users, including physical tasks and social duties.
Family Support Worker
Family support workers assist social workers in their duties and provide practical support to families and young people in their homes where parents are struggling to cope, and where children are in danger from their own behaviour or that of others.
Residential Care
Residential care provides a safe environment for people who are no longer able to cope in their own homes. Residential care staff help to create friendly, homely and clean environments where people can live in comfort and are treated with dignity and respect.
Working with young people
Working in youth clubs, drop-in centres, children's homes and elsewhere, social care workers help vulnerable young people.
Children's Residential Care
Sometimes children need to move into residential homes or go to foster homes and social care workers build relationships with younger children to support them as they develop. As they grow older, the scope extends to issues such as self-image, success at school, sexuality and practical skills like cooking and budgeting.
Independent Living
A personal assistant is someone who works with an elderly or disabled person to provide practical support to help them gain control of their own lives and to live as independently as possible.
Working with Adults
Within any community there are people who find it difficult to cope with the practicalities of every day life because of poor mental health, learning disabilities, or other problems. The role of the social care workers is to support these people and help them to lead as full a life as possible.
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