Social services aim to provide social care and support in the community. This tends to involve helping individuals and families to understand and find solutions for the problems they face in their everyday lives.
There are many different types of social service jobs. They can be broadly split between children's and adult services but there is some overlap involved with all of them providing help to people who need assistance when dealing with difficulties in their lives.
Children's Social Services
Jobs within children's social services may involve working with children in care and helping to manage adoption or fostering services. Those working in these positions can also offer family support. This can include imparting advice and offering practical help to families who are struggling with various issues and problems. Social services can empower families, helping them to make informed choices which will improve their lives. They can help keep families together but must also make assessments when a child may be at risk.
Children's social services aim to ensure that every child is safe and has their needs met. These needs include a safe and healthy environment, food and shelter, access to education and emotional well-being. Workers may also help young people who are leaving care or who may be in trouble or at risk of getting in trouble with the law.
Adult Social Services
Those working in the adult sector will often be dealing with some of the most vulnerable people in society. These can include the elderly, people with disabilities, people struggling with mental health problems and offenders living in the community. The goal is to help people live as independently and successfully as possible.
Multi-agency working
Many social service jobs will involve working closely with practitioners and professionals from different sectors and areas of expertise. Multi-agency working is a generic term and the exact nature can take different forms depending on the locality.
There may be a formal Multi-Agency Support Team (commonly known as MAST) in place and this may include social workers, medical practitioners, youth workers, schools and police services. The goal is to achieve the best possible outcome for individuals and families and a combined and co-ordinated effort is often required to achieve this.
Skills and Employers
Social service workers in general need to have a patient and understanding nature. They should be able to communicate well and get on with people. They should also be able to work well as part of a team and take responsibility for their own actions.
Workers provide practical help and support to individuals and families in times of crisis. This can sometimes involve making difficult decisions and level-headedness is another quality highly valued in this field.
Social workers and social carers may be employed by various employers and in different capacities. Local authorities are the largest employers but the NHS, some independent organisations and the voluntary sector can also provide jobs related to social services.
There are also agencies which provide cover and temporary workers to these various employers.
Jobs in social work can be stressful but they can also be tremendously rewarding on a personal level as well as offering a varied, interesting and relatively stable career. Explore the positions on offer at HCL Social Care.
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