What is Social Work? The Role

Social work is all about people.
 
Social workers form relationships with people. As adviser, advocate, counsellor or listener, a social worker helps people to live more successfully 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 as well as working closely with other organisations including the police, NHS, schools and probation service.

There is a specific status associated with the job title "social worker". Social workers are professionally qualified staff who assess the needs of service users and plan the individual packages of care and support that best help them. Becoming a social worker involves taking an honours degree in social work and registering with the General Social Care Council. Almost all social workers start their careers with experience in social care.

Social workers tend to specialise in either adult or children's services.

Adult Services

Roles include working with people with mental health problems or learning disabilities; working with people who are in residential care; working with offenders, by supervising them in the community and supporting them to find work; assisting people with HIV/AIDs and working with older people at home helping to sort out problems with their health, housing or benefits.