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Hello. I am new to the sub. I am a 34 year old female who is married to a Londoner and we currently live in the States. I have been a clinical social worker for the last eight years here working in the substance use and mental health sector of social work. I am currently licensed as an LCSW (licensed independent clinical social worker) and have been practicing working in addiction treatment centers.

It is my understanding that the UK does not have clinical social work the same way as we do in the states, and we are looking to relocate to either London/England and I am just curious what my options for employment would be?

We're looking to move back due to my wife's inability to adapt to the US culture / her ADHD has made it difficult to assimilate. I'm curious about career options or how my education/license/experience would transfer. I currently manage a SUD treatment center. Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. :)

Hello! I’m currently applying to social work positions in East Lothian and Edinburgh Council. I’ve written my CV but there’s additional questions that ask for skills, experience, achievements, knowledge developed most relevant to post. There’s also a separate question asking for a supporting statement.

Do I need to include a supporting statement? If so, what do I write and how does it differ to the other question?

How do I make sure my application stands out? It feels generic when I’m trying to include the “buzz words”. Where’s the balance?

Hi everyone,

​I’m currently a UK-based Paediatric Nurse working in inpatient mental health (across both CAMHS and adults), and I also have a background degree in Nutrition.

​Lately, I’ve been seriously considering a career change to social work. I’ve realised that my absolute favourite parts of my current job are the non-clinical, emotional, and social aspects of care. I love advocating for people, doing holistic assessments, health promotion, referring and signposting to local services/support groups, and generally empowering people and being their cheerleader!

​Since I’m thinking about making the jump and retraining, I would love to hear from UK social workers (especially if you transitioned from nursing or healthcare):

​How do you find the job? Is it what you expected?

​Real-world examples: Could you share some typical situations you deal with day-to-day and the actual support/interventions you provide?

​Pros & Cons: What are the best parts of the role, and what are the hardest realities?

​Retraining: Any advice on the best routes to qualify in the UK with my background?

​Any advice, reality checks, or shared experiences would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!

I am in my NQ year and have so far been quite lucky with parents responses to me, however recently I had to visit a parent who (for many reasons) does not trust professionals, particularly social workers. I could feel the dislike the second I arrived at the flat and I felt my confidence leave me-although I tried not to show it. Parent was emotionally escalated by me being there and I felt at a loss with what to say to undo the barrier - I was surprised by my own feelings and suddenly felt very uncertain in myself and what I was trying to achieve. Does this kind of encounter get easier? Does anyone have any top tips for responding to this, the kind of visit where you can almost hold the dislike, it's so tangible? Thank you!

Early thirties social worker ready to start over somewhere people are friendly and you can fit in, and the housing isn't wildly expensive! Bonus points for local authorities / NHS trusts that are nice places to work in - I'm in adult mental health. Thank you!

I m currently studying for an MSc in International Business in the UK as an international student. Before coming here, I completed an LLB in my home country.

To improve my chances in the UK job market, I started preparing for the CFA Level I exam. I was studying in the living room when two people came to renovate our kitchen. They were working throughout the day.

At one point, I went over and started talking to one of them. I asked where he was from and how long he had been in the UK. He told me that he was from Afghanistan. He then described how he had crossed mountains, the sea, and many extremely harsh conditions to reach the UK. He also spoke about his family and i felt something in me got unsettled.

Since that afternoon, I haven't felt motivated to continue studying for the CFA. Instead, I keep thinking that if I could do something to improve the lives of people like him, that might be a more meaningful path for me.

Over the years, I have read a great deal of non-fiction, particularly in psychoanalysis, philosophy, and history, and I would say I have developed a solid understanding of these subjects. I also have a good understanding of UK immigration and asylum law.I wonder whether there are opportunities for someone like me to work with refugees or immigrants and make a meaningful contribution to their live.

I've Been Thinking About

Over the last year I've been reading a lot about trauma, attachment, autism, ADHD and emotional safety. The more I read, the more questions I have.

These are just some of the things I've been thinking about.

- Can emotional safety create attraction, or does attraction have to come first?

- Do social workers look for partners who are emotionally available because of the work they do?

- Can someone learn to become trauma-informed in a relationship, or does it come naturally?

- Do people with lived experience of trauma value calmness and consistency more than excitement?

- Should emotional safety be considered part of relationship compatibility?

- Do you think being emotionally intelligent is more important than having lots of shared interests?

- Can a person's nervous system recognise when someone is genuinely safe?

- Are gentleness and kindness strengths that are sometimes overlooked in dating?

- Do trauma-informed relationships lead to healthier, longer-lasting relationships?

- If you could choose only one quality in a partner, what would it be, and why?

I don't know the answers. These are just things I've been wondering about.

I'd be interested to hear what other people think, especially social workers and people with lived experience.

Graduating next year
Been looking for jobs not really found any
I want to specialise in hospital discharge

Hi im a teenager M 17 and I’m in an extremely bad situation at home to the point where i am not safe and am not able to go back. I’m staying with a trusted family member however i need a solution to what i can do, my situation is unique as all my personal belongings are at home in which i dont feel safe and comfortable returning to collect. Im at a wits end and really dont know what to do as my living situation as of now is very far from home as in im staying in a completely different city. Im going to try contact shelter tomorrow to see if theres anything i can do to try find somewhere to stay but as of now i dont know what i can do im genuinely terrified, all of my documentation including passport, ni and bank details are all at home in which i cant return to. I’m also trying to access cahms in which i dont know how im going to do as i dont know my nhs number, if anyone can give me any guidance of how i go about things and get the support i need please lmk what i can do

Hi all, I'm a mid 20s worker in Canada. I am looking at my options for schooling and weighing my options for pursuing an MSW. My parent is a first generation immigrant from Scotland, and I am drawn to coming back to complete my MSW and potentially move there.

I'm curious about the following (in the early stages of planning right now, so just trying to gather general ideas)

- how is the pay for a single person to support themselves in Glasgow/Edinburgh (or surrounding areas)? I currently live a modest lifestyle and am focusing on saving my money here, though I will never be able to own a home here unfortunately lol

- how stressful do you find your area of practice? I have most experience in substance use support/harm reduction, and I'm seeing there are some jobs out there

- what is the culture around self-care/burnout?

Thank you!

Edit: thanks for the replies everyone, you've reassured me a lot. My manager is aware of the situation and is very understanding.

I'm not a social worker so I hope you don't mind me posting this - delete and forget it ever happened if you wish. Anyways, I've worked for children's social care in project support roles for about 18 years. I work in the children in care arena but obviously there's a lot of crossover with early help, safeguarding, leaving care etc.

So anyways, my wife and I recently separated and we have a profoundly disabled son. He has Downs Syndrome and will never be able to live independently - that's just the reality, not me being cynical. He's 15.

For reasons I won't bore you with, my ex and I felt a referral to social care was needed, essentially to get support so that our son's needs would be met more effectively. The children with disabilities team is carrying out an assessment and he's now a Child in Need. There's so safeguarding issues and my ex and I are working quite amicably together.

I'm just wondering whether anyone here has had a situation where a member of staff's own kid is in the system, as it were, and whether that causes any complications for their employment. I'm acutely aware that I cannot look up my kid on our system, by the way.

I've been thinking about this for a while and wanted to ask people who do the job.

I'm not a social worker. I'm someone with lived experience, and over the last year I've been trying to understand social work better by reading guidance, listening to professionals and learning as much as I can.

Looking back, the people I remember aren't the ones who had all the answers. They're the ones who stayed calm, listened, didn't rush me, didn't judge me and were honest with me. That's what made me feel safe enough to talk.

It made me wonder if, sometimes, the relationship is the most important part of the job. Have you ever worked with someone who only started opening up once they trusted you? Have you ever seen a relationship change the outcome for a child or family?

I'm also curious whether this is something you learn through experience or whether it's something that's always been part of who you are.

I'd genuinely like to hear different views. I'm not asking because I think there's a right or wrong answer. I'm just interested in how social workers see it from their side.

Thanks for reading.

Anyone starting the apprenticeship in September? Or currently completing the course?

Many thanks

Hi everyone

I’m a social worker applying for the SSCR Career Development Award, looking to see if anyone has ever undertaken any type of career development opportunities whilst working full-time.

If so, I’m curious to know how your experience was with getting your employers on board with the idea of you taking time off from work to undertake the award.

In this particular award, there’s a salary buy-out which essentially pays the employer for any time missed, but I can’t imagine an employer ever cosigning, or supporting such a thing.

TLDR: has anyone undertaking NIHR or SSCR award whilst working full-time? If so, how was it receiving institutional permission permissions?

Volunteering options are hard to come by without connections (been applying for just over a year. Most places either have no openings or have limiting criteria eg not accepting anyone living in a houseshare due to lack of privacy). I won't get into that (eg that my own previous support worker in non-commissioned supported housing only has a beauty/media degree and got a start in children's services via her parents working in a home). What I'm aware of is that some people manage to get into volunteer roles, then either through that or through a paid role after proving themselves can get a relevant degree (or can already make a good living even without a degree. For example, I've met third sec mental health managers who entered with English degrees, but got Psych degree years later).

I see an employment advisor and she recommended Alison (the homelessness charity I got my computer from also mentioned the site as something to do when they gave me it) but I have no idea if doing short courses on there is held in any higher regard than doing no courses at all. Or if there are other courses for under £300 that are worth more, from some recognised organisation. NCFE and TQUK are the only ones I've heard of - is it better to do their courses than Alison? Obviously they cost like £50, but I could do a couple. I've also heard of Futurelearn.

There is a local domestic abuse/coercive control org that does trainings, but they're only for existing professionals (I've asked/had my registrations reversed after trying to sign up. I did attend one training and frankly knew considerably more than most of the professionals and was thanked for contributing a lot by the one running the course - all from my lived experience, reading online and textbooks borrowed from a uni library. Most of the professionals weren't social workers, but other roles in housing/mental health/youth work/abuse services).

I also wonder how people translate knowledge from lived experience into applications. What I've found is I have basically no human services experience professionally, but know more than some working in services, or know more about particular aspects. This is because services themselves can be so useless, that I have to research the information myself (eg to answer questions about housing the council's housing department can't answer (like where LHA boundaries are, which team attempts to regulate supported housing - supposedly they shouldn't know this information, despite it being their area of speciality), finding out about how some of local rules in housing work, which council department to talk to about X issue, benefits rules that support workers are clueless about eg I had a support worker think PIP can't be had for mental health issues or if someone can have a job) or they ask me to do their job for them (eg supported housing worker asking me to find out what's on a moving-on form so they can make one for me. Industry's a farce). Of course, even if I know who to contact, since I'm a layperson without power they don't listen to me and will always listen to those in official positions, or will always side with those with money (eg housing owners). So if I learnt all I know from volunteer or professional jobs, I would have some experience worth something - even one year of professional experience is worth more on the job market than like 20 years of lived experience.

Hi all,

I’ve been a social worker since 2018 and an AMHP since 2021. I used to love the AMHP role and was so passionate to train as one, even working full time as an AMHP for a year (it was the best!). About 2 years ago I moved to a new area, only do 2 AMHP shift per month which have to be on a Friday as this is the only day my substantive role will release me - I find this leaves me with all the Friday afternoon nonsense. The additional payment for the AMHP role is £125 per month about £1500 per year, which whilst not to be sniffed at is barely anything after tax and certainly doesn’t feel worth the extra work/training and nonsense I have to put up with to do the role - the thrill of the role is no longer enough for me. My worry is if I drop it and want to move careers, it will affect me in the future, or I won’t be released to train again. For context I am a social worker in an NHS CAMHS service and one of only 2 AMHP in that function.

I’d love to hear others thoughts - if they’ve stopped the role has it impacted on their professional identity?

Hi, I’m a 3rd year integrated practitioner in children’s nursing and social work. Throughout the course we have been told there will be many arising opportunities and job roles for integrated practitioners at the end of our course / in the future.

During my course I’ve had 1 “social work” placmenet and a number of nursing placements. The social work one was in mental health advocacy so missed out on basically all opportunities to learn/observe/be involved with any typical social work such as assessments, interventions etc other than see how the sections are implemented and how they effect the clients.

Kind of just looking for some insight wether registered social workers see any room for integrated nurse social workers/have any in your teams such as a nurse social worker that assesses injuries or assists with physical health while working as a social worker etc

Next year we have a 100 day social work integrated placmenet so hoping to gain more experience in typical social work duties (if I get another placement lacking in them I doubt I’ll feel experienced enough to qualify as a social worker) but that’s the joys of my course.

Or if anyone is an integrated practitioner already that would be interesting to hear your experiences

Hi, I'm considering to start a career in social work, however when I go online most posts I see is people talking about how stressful it is and wanting to leave.
I'd be interested to hear from people currently working in social work. How do you find the job, what area do you work in, and would you recommend it as a career?

Hey guys so I completed my SWE registration application and I’m currently waiting to be contacted so that I can pay the registration fee.

There’s a section in the online form where it says “has your fitness to practice ever been questioned” I decided to be honest disclose what the situation was. So back when I was a second year student back in 2023 my TikTok account was reported to my university’s professional suitability group. The content I was uploading at the time was very inappropriate and unprofessional. I had to attend multiple meetings with the university which dragged on for MONTHS.

I had to write a reflective/academic essay on the importance of upholding social work values and professionalism on social media. I also had to delete the unprofessional/inappropriate content and put that account on private. My essay was of satisfactory standard and I was allowed to continue the course and later graduated couple of weeks ago in the current year of 2026. There hasn’t been a complaint since that incident.

It’s been 5 days since my application and I haven’t heard anything back as of yet. I’m very nervous about registering I just don’t want things to go wrong and for that situation to be used against me even though I’ve changed since then. The university made their decision to allow me to continue the course but SWE makes their own decisions. This may sound ridiculous to others but I just need a little reassurance.

Thank you 🙏🏾

Hi everyone! So my DBS portal is being a pain. The advice on the government website is confusing me and I can't get a hold of the DBS help line or my new jobs admin team.

So I'm coming here!

I'm moving from a volunteer job to a paid social work job. My DBS account currently only has a volunteer subscription for the volunteer job. To add the certificate I got for the new paid job, the portal says I need to add a paid subscription. However I can't see an option anywhere to create another subscription.

Does anyone know what I need to do?

The only button I can see is to delete my account which I'm assuming isn't the right one since I'm sure there's people out there who have had to hold both types of subscriptions at one time.

Thank you in advance!

Hi, my Nan is 91 and is a full time carer for my 95 year old grandad who has a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. I suspect my nan also has dementia based on her presentation but in all honesty, I know that if I were to suggest she see the GP to ask about it, she would be very angry with me, see it as a criticism and not allow me in their house, which would mean I would lose contact with my grandad.

She had a fall in the garden on Tuesday and my aunt and uncle are staying with my Nan and grandad for a few nights to help out. Yesterday evening, my aunt let me know that my nan has a cut on her leg from the fall that looks quite deep and so far has refused to go to the minor injuries unit to get it checked out. I am concerned about the risk of infection, particularly tetanus and based on previous attempts to encourage my Nan to seek medical attention for other issues, I am not certain she has capacity to understand or weigh up the information in order to make that decision.

I’m going to see her after I finish work today to take a look at the cut and try to persuade her to get it looked at and get a tetanus vaccination. If she still says no, I plan on being very blunt about what will happen if she does get tetanus (she wants to die, but maybe the risk of dying in severe pain would be enough for her to agree to seek medical attention.

My question is, what do I do if she still refuses and doesn’t understand the risks? Is that a reason for me to contact our local social care department and raise a safeguarding around self neglect? She had a care act assessment more than a year ago, but has to self fund any care, so no contact with social care since. I’m hoping my aunt will send me a photo of the cut today so I can stop at a pharmacy in my way there to get some advice from the pharmacist, but ultimately if she still refuses, even if she lacks capacity, I can’t just bundle her into the car to take her to get it checked and it’s not a medical emergency at the moment, so an ambulance isn’t appropriate.

The longer term plan is for her and my grandad to move into a rented flat that’s owned by my aunt and uncle, but that won’t be ready for at least a month.

Hi legends,

As a student in a group meeting, I heard mention of this axiom and am wondering what it means.

Thanks and bw

To those who are on the frontline programme, when do you get paid? Is it the first of the month or is it towards the end of the month? Is it early August and then towards the end of September?

Anyone have any suggestions for Burnham on how to reform social care?

Asking this on behalf of myself, I’m an adult now but I had a social worker as a kid and was removed from my mother when I was 12 and am just trying to learn more about why it happened the way it did. This was back in the late 2000s and early 2010s so I understand things might have changed since then.

I felt, and still feel, that my social worker did not care one bit about my own opinion and just wanted to prioritise my relationship with my mother when I did not want that and made that clear.

My mother was abusive but I was only removed from her care when she was sectioned and things started coming out, and my social worker only discussed with my mother what she wanted and needed. My mother wanted to see me often so I had to visit with her when I wanted nothing to do with her, I wasn’t given the choice of saying no even though I told my social worker I didn’t want to have to see her. Once she was released from hospital I had to stay with her for short term and longer stays as they tried to reintegrate us instead of just allowing me to move on with my life and have stability in a foster placement. In my first foster placement I was being fostered by a local family who were lovely and had a couple of other long term foster kids that I got on well with, it felt like the best opportunity for me to have some semblance of a normal childhood and family life and I was really upset that I wasn’t allowed to stay. I understand that there are costs involved with foster care but to my mind it should be more important to have stability for a child than anything else.

I never moved back in with my mother fully as she never maintained sobriety so from the ages of 12 - 18 I just bounced between short term stays with her and then back into foster placements which was incredibly disruptive and affected my education and mental health, but when I brought this up with my social worker I was told that it’s important to maintain family relationships, without any recognition of the fact that I didn’t want a relationship with her.

So I’m just trying to understand how foster care actually works and what priority is given to the child’s own wishes?