Hi, Ive been qualified 10 years and up until 3 years ago worked in CP and duty teams at various London boroughs, a few of those jobs were senior prac levels.
I then started self employed work working with carers and court assessments. I want to get back into statutory work, preferably in duty again, Im now living outside of London so dont have a great deal of LA's to choose from in this area.
Im going to go for QSW level jobs that I see (via agency, I only want temp jobs at the moment), but am nervous about what's changed in those years Ive been out of it!
The agencies at the moment seem to be implying I am not desirable due to the amount of time I have been out of stat work, which doesnt inspire me with confidence!
I recently took the PQ in practice assessing but I dont have any other PQ.
What are the main legislative or procedural changes over the past couple of years, Im thinking mainly of policy changes really?
Agencies seem to be fixated with idea that social work (applies to teaching as well) only takes place in the statutory sector. If you can either ignore the agencies and apply directly for jobs or b) contact your last local authority or somewhere where you know and see if you can spend a bit of time with the team and obviously get up to speed with what happening in social work - read PSW and Com Care and British Journal of Social Work
Good luck
Joe from BASW
Thanks Joe, I think I also have lost a bit of confidence being out of the loop as it were so the agency response has just touched on that I think!
Also, I worked for a year at CAFCASS as a temp, loved the work, hated the organisation, but one thing that seemed to be a real problem there was accommodation and equipment availability, is it the done thing to ask about desks and computers at an interview these days. I hate the idea of hot desking but may just have to stomach it if I want to work for duty teams again.