Social Work - Stockport JobsMatch

Whether you’re newly qualified, a seasoned professional or considering a change, there are plenty of Social Worker Careers in Stockport. So, what do social workers do, what training or qualifications are required, and where can a career in social work in Stockport take you?

Social workers help protect vulnerable children and adults from harm or abuse, and support people to live independently. Daily duties will vary (depending on whether you work with children, families or adults), but could include:

offering information and counselling
creating support plans for individuals
keeping records and writing reports
discussing cases with your team and supervisors
supporting clients’ safety and taking the right action to protect them when necessary
working closely with community, health professionals and other agencies
helping clients to develop and maintain independent living skills
meeting with families and individuals to assess and review their situations

You may work in an office, in an NHS or private hospital, at an adult or children’s care home, or in the community.

Featured Stockport Employer

Hear from Josh – a qualified Social Worker for Stockport Council – sharing his career story about working in the Social Work Industry. Learn how his teachers inspired him to pursue a pathway that drew on his strengths and invest in a career that gives back to others in the community.

Find out what it takes to get started in social work, what a typical day involves, the key skills required to succeed and what the best bits about the job are.

Labour Market Information

In our borough, Stockport Family brings together all the services for children from health, social care, and education from early years to early adulthood into one service. Social work teams work side by side with health visitors, school nurses, midwives, early years, early help workers, teachers and education workers so that you can get the help and support you need to make a difference for families.

We’re always on the look-out for newly qualified or experienced Social Workers to join our Stockport Family.

In Stockport, we believe that relationships should shape the service delivery model, not the point a child is at in services. We aim for children and families to have just one social worker whilst they are in Stockport Family. Social workers gain great satisfaction from being the constant in families lives and opportunities to build new skills and knowledge.

Ofsted has recognised that social work practice in Stockport is good with outstanding features and we are ambitious about wanting to be even better for children and families and you can play a key part in achieving this goal.

Starting Salary

£12.00 per hour or £18,000
per annum

Typical Salary Range

£21,000 – £48,000
per annum

Working Hours

37 to 39 hours per week, between 8am and 6pm

Working in Social Work

As well as qualifications, you’ll also need to develop relevant skills that will help you be a Social Worker. These include:

counselling skills including active listening and a non-judgemental approach
sensitivity and understanding
patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
to be flexible and open to change
knowledge of sociology and an understanding of society and culture
the ability to work well with others
the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure
active listening skills
to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently

Plus, you’ll likely need to pass an enhanced background check and a driving license and your own transport will be useful.

Due to the nature of the role, you will need professional qualifications to undertake it, which you can gain via a university course, an apprenticeship or a graduate training scheme.

If you choose the university route, you can do a degree or postgraduate qualification in social work or a 2-year postgraduate degre in social work if you already have a degree in another subject. You’ll usually need 2 to 3 A-Levels or equivalent for a degree, or a degree in any other subject for a postgraduate course.

Alternatively, you can complete a social worker degree apprenticeship (which takes around 3 years). You’ll need 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 4 to 9 (A* to C) and A-Levels or an equivalent Level 3 qualification (like a BTEC or NVQ).

You could also apply to an intensive, work-based training programme for graduates if you’ve got a first or upper second class degree in any subject except social work – such as Frontline for children’s social work, Step Up to Social Work or Think Ahead for mental health social work.

Stockport Family is looking for exceptional people to join our social work teams. If you are looking for a new challenge and want to use your skills and experience to support the development of social workers in teams, be part of exciting new ways of working with children and families and work somewhere that is passionate about social work practice come join us!

You’ll need to be passionate about relationship-based social work, proud of your profession and able to reflect and think creatively about how you can build relationships to make a difference with children and families.

If you join Stockport Family as a locality social worker, you will have the opportunity to work with children throughout their time with statutory social care services. You will be working from the point of duty at the front door, through assessment, child in need/team around the child support, child protection, pre-court and proceedings work, children in care and adoption through to step down/step out of involvement with children’s social care.

Alongside your allocated children you will also be the link social worker for specific schools within your locality and be a key member of the team around the school. You will offer advice and support to professional colleagues that enables them to confidently support children and families to receive the early help and support they need with the aim of preventing the need to escalate to statutory social care services.

Here’s what our team have to say about being part of the Stockport Family:

Working in Stockport makes you love social work again.
From the moment I started as a Senior Practitioner in Stockport,
I fell in love with my job again. This is real social work.
If you miss direct work with children, life story work, systemic genograms, family network meetings, reflective practice, relationships, this is the place for you. The term ‘restorative practice’ genuinely means something here and everyone
from front-line workers to senior management care about keeping families together and management care about their staff.

Kate

Senior social work practitioner