This week's Career Clinic question said:

I'm a third year student on my final placement and currently looking for jobs. Is it better to work for a local authority first, or join a private organisation? With salaries not being kept in line with inflation, and pensions not as they used to be, I am confused about what's best.

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Hi, I currently work for a charity based organisation. This is also where I did my final year placement, the reality for me was I was enjoying working in the substance misuse field so much that I knew I wanted paid employment in the sector. When my current role came up I was on placement doing a different role and I discussed applying for the role with my work based supervisor. This was about 2 months before my placement was due to finish. Because the title of this role was not social worker I was initially worried about how this would affect my future career, but in the job description they wanted a qualified social worker for the role so that put me at ease a little.

I have now been doing this role for a period of time and have found that working in the substance misuse field is definatley something valuable in terms of expierience and future prospects. I am fully registered with the GSCC as a social worker and am carrying out social work interventions on a daily basis.

The starting salary is slightly less than social services pay, but going up an increment each year means that you arent actually that far behind. The pension scheme matches that of the local authority in this area.

Therefore I would say that both local authority and the private sector have a lot to offer, at some point in my career I do want to work for the local authority to expierience that side of it. Apply for roles you are interested in and that has a similar pay scale, dont get too caught up in wether it is local authority or private you gain so much expierience and knowledge from both sectors.  

Hi I spent 5 years working in a Child Protection Team in Newcastle follwoing qualifying in 2003. I must say that it was an experience that I beleive that all newly qualifying workers should try. It is a valuable learning curve as you learn all aspects of therole. This includes Court work as well as dealing with domestic violence, substance misuse and mental health issues (and thts just the workers). Seriously it gives you a fantastic foundation for working within the field if that is what you want to do.  However, the other side of that is that it is a very difficult job wih alot of pitfalls. you need good mangers and support networks (like this one) to help you get the best out of the role. i have since moved from the statutory sector and I now work for the NSPCC still working to protect children and I absolutely love it. It is a totally different feel within the same field which I never thought I would enjoy. Yes there are financial benefits but that is not the reason for liking it. The main reason is the support of colleagues, working as a close team. Other proefssionals respecting your work and not feeling that you are always the enemy. My suggestion is try both our professioanl development is like a jigsaw with all our experiences being the pieces. To complete the jigsaw we should work in all fields which would promote our understanding of others roles. The most important thing is to keep wanting to go to work and feelign we are doing a good job.