Social Work and Social Care Employment in Times of Austerity

The rhetoric of better government services and increased support for vulnerable individuals and their families is contrasted with the harsh reality of significant budget cuts, reduction and/or closure of services, and various reorganisations ranging from merger of services and/or departments to retrenchment of social work and social care workers, unification of middle and top level management, and/or reduction/elimination of supervisory/line-management positions.

The job losses in local authorities are only aggravated by the shrinkage and/or closures of various charities while, there are entire cohorts of new graduates that are still struggling to find their first employment.

Therefore, in our next live twitter debate we wish to explore some of the following questions:

  1. What are the prospects of employment for newly qualified social workers?
  2. Does the area of specialization have any bearing on new graduates’ prospects for employment?
  3. What are some of the employment opportunities available in social work and social care today?
  4. How easy is it to get that “Golden” first job?
  5. What are the employment prospects for statutory social work and social care workers?
  6. What are the employment prospects for  social work and social care workers working in the voluntary/third sector?
  7. What are the employment prospects for independent social workers?
  8. What are the employment prospects for agency workers?
  9. How easy or difficult is it to change between services and/or specialisations?

The time and date of the debate are as follows:

Topic:    Social Work and Social Care Employment Prospects in Times of Austerity

Date:     Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Time:    15:00 to 16:15 EST  (20:00 to 21:15 GMT)

Official Twitter Feed:  @SWSCmedia  

The debate hashtag is:  #SWSCmedia

If this is your first time to join our debate please follow the following steps:

How to join the debate:

  1. To participate in the debate, type #swscmedia in the search box at the top of your twitter screen and press enter or press the search button (search button is the little lens on the right-hand-side of the search box). You will then be able to see all tweets containing #swscmedia;
  2. To share your views or respond to a point or a question or to share your ideas/views please make sure you include #swscmedia in the text of your tweet. This will ensure that others who are following the debate are able to see your tweet.

We look forward to seeing you in our debate.

Share Button