Related jobs
Advanced Social care job search
Related articles
How to write a personal statement for a University course application
5 quick tips to update your social care CV
Get qualified for any job in Health and Social Care
John Field - Agency Care Manager and Experienced Support Worker
Information about social care careers
How to make and then follow up an online application for a social care job
How to write a personal statement to get a social care job when you’ve got no experience
Browse Social Care Jobs
Locum Social Worker
Senior Supervising Social Worker
Head of Care
Health Care Assistants - Nursing Homes
Care home senior support workers
About Social Care Jobs and Vacancies
Social care jobs are diverse and rewarding. Offering opportunities, training and challenges, social care is a sector that deals with the challenge of improving someone's life. SocialCare.co.uk lists jobs posted by employers as well as, of course, Social Care Recruitment Agencies and Employers. SocialCare.co.uk is run by the same team that operate Nurses.co.uk, the UK site for nurse jobs. Below we try to explain the many kinds of social care careers and the benefits of social care employment.
Why Social Care Vacancies?
Many say health and social care jobs aren't really like jobs at all. Others say they can't imagine doing anything else. An almost ubiquitous comment is that social care jobs offer something unobtainable in most other industries - the chance to make a real difference to someone's life. As with nursing jobs, social care is are an entirely human occupation.
There are few other jobs where you can get paid to feel rewarded (and be rewarded) by helping someone to take a bus, by getting a group of people to play football, by sitting down and chatting with someone, by combing someone's hair and cooking for them and helping their family cope. There are many different social care worker jobs, but all of them require a similar approach and offer similar rewards.
All social care vacancies require passion and energy. Social care jobs are available to anyone of any age, qualified or unqualified. Social care jobs are satisfying, challenging and full of opportunity. And if that's not enough, with social care jobs in particular, the bar to entry is very low; start without qualifications and work your way into a specialism, and up through the career grades.
Jobs in social care are about giving people their lives back. You provide support and you give people the skills they need to live as independently as is safe for them to do so.
What skills are needed for social care work?
Typical skills required within every kind of social care job and those looked for during social care recruitment are patience, and a supportive approach. You will be able to help people do everyday activities, live in their own home, make dinner, get dressed, socialise, communicate, feel content. Empathy and sensitivity are two key requirements for social care jobs. These are the skills that allow you to notice that someone needs glasses, or a hearing aid, will be unable to cope in a supermarket, or requires regular home care because they can't dress a wound.
Your decision-making abilities will be needed to assess peoples' requirements. Your experience will raise questions about their situation - do they have nursing needs, would they be safer with social support and home health care, are they at risk from their social environment, family, their own mental ill health? Social care jobs are about empowering people. Your expertise means a client can become independent again, can recover from illness or surgery or trauma or a stroke. If you're working with someone with learning disabilities it's your skills and patience that means they can live as normal a life as is possible and safe.
This is what social care jobs are about; improving the quality of someone's life. These are the personal rewards of social care jobs.
Career progression with Social Care Jobs
The career benefits within social care jobs come from the many opportunities available through specialising, education, promotion and training.
Social care is a hugely diverse industry and you can transfer skills from one branch of social care to another, from one social care job type to another. For instance, without qualifications, you can become a care assistant in a nursing home for the elderly. Taking the time to follow training, and through education, you can become a registered nurse, and then specialise in a branch of nursing to become a qualified RMN. Following hard work and experience and perhaps further training you may end up leading a PICU (psychiatric intensive care unit) for a specialist medium secure independent hospital.
OK - if you think you'd prefer to not work in mental health... why not investigate becoming an RMN or RNLD working in a prison (see our mental health jobs and our learning disabilities jobs). Or for that matter a social worker assessing the needs of homeless clients in the community.
Social care jobs are entirely democratic: starting with no formal qualifications you can become a specialist at the top of your profession with qualifications gained while on the job, earning money as you learn and advance your career through education and hard work and passion.
NVQ2, NVQ3, NVQ4 (social care incorporates a large number of NVQ jobs).... Counselling qualifications... nursing degrees... further specialist nurse training within branches of nursing, a degree in social work... And it's not just the formal qualifications either. Social care jobs tend to make it easy for you to investigate other disciplines through secondments. Certainly, the NHS allows staff to learn about other social care jobs, giving you the opportunity to diversify, branch out and try something new with your transferable skills and positive approach to care. Good social care agencies will seek to help you in your career and match your skills appropriately.
Team work and daily variety
Social care jobs offer variety on a day-to-day basis. Days are seldom routine or monotonous. This is not a desk job but one full of surprises and demands.
And you'll not be working alone or in isolation. You'll form part of a team, helping and relying on other experts around you. You'll be expected to work, liaise, report to and delegate to all levels of staff, from school leavers to highly experienced and qualified healthcare managers or consultants.
The support of a team is something that is typical to social care jobs. There is a strong team ethos, a support network who will help and share responsibilities and expertise - and all for one common aim: to bring about a positive change in patients and clients.
So, what are you waiting for? Explore the many paths and opportunities of social care vacancies and social care jobs throughout the UK today (why not browse our sister site, Healthcarejobs.ie, for social care jobs in Ireland). SocialCare.co.uk lists jobs across the country, from social care jobs in London to social care jobs in Manchester, Glasgow and all other major cities. Get browsing!
