Social care : Overview

The social care sector covers all the occupations whose aim is to help people overcome difficulties related to physical, mental, environmental or lifestyle problems at any stage in their lives. It includes staff in both professional and non-professional roles who support vulnerable people living in the community and in residential care.

For a good overview, see the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website. Social care is high on the Government’s agenda, with a focus on the integration of health, social care and education to reflect the overlap between these areas of life.

The sector has previously suffered from a negative image, with high vacancy and staff turnover rates in some areas and high profile child abuse cases bringing it under public scrutiny.

Coupled with this was a lack of recognition for what social workers do. The Care Standards Act 2000 changed this with the introduction of a social work degree and social workers’ register. This act and other relevant legislation, such as the Children Act 2004 and the Mental Health Act 2007, can be found on the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) website.

You can keep up to date with news of this sector by checking Society Guardian.

What kind of work can I do?

• Adults - support for the elderly, people with mental health, learning and physical disabilities, or alcohol and substance abuse problems, the homeless, and victims of domestic abuse.
• Children, young people and families - work in fostering, adoption and child protection, and with young offenders, and youngsters who are unemployed or homeless, or who have learning and physical disabilities.

The range of work settings includes the community, hospitals, health centres, education and advice centres and people’s homes.

What’s it like working in this sector?

Social worker starting salaries range from £21,000 to £25,000. Staff in senior roles earn around £31,000. Staff motivation and morale have been affected in some areas by high vacancy and staff turnover rates, related in part to low pay. Social workers in some teams have high caseloads, but they can be managed with adequate support and training.

The current ethnic make up of the workforce does not reflect the diverse community it serves and the gender balance is unequal, with women making up the large majority of workers.

The nature of the work causes work-related stress, but this is balanced by the personal satisfaction gained from developing and maintaining relationships with the people you are trying to help. You can make a real impact on improving people's lives.

How big is this sector?

The sector serves two million users accessing over 30,000 provider organisations. Local authorities employ a third of the workforce and most of the rest are employed in the private and voluntary sectors. Increasing numbers of workers are self-employed.

 According to most recent figures, around 922,000 people are in paid employment in the social care sector. Nearly two thirds (61% or 559,000 individuals) are in services for older people, 177,000 (19%) work with adults with disabilities, 123,000 (13%) are in children's services and the remaining 63,000 (7%) are in mental health (‘The State of the Social Care Workforce 2004’, published by Skills for Care, April 2005).

In addition, there are childcare providers, NHS staff with caring duties, foster carers, adopters and some school staff, totalling around 1.6 million, plus approximately five million unpaid carers.

Where can I work?

There are opportunities to work all over the UK, with particularly high vacancy rates in the London boroughs and the city unitary authorities.

In Scotland, around 130,000 staff are employed in the sector, in Wales around 70,000 (the majority working with older people), and in Northern Ireland, around 30,000.