I am sorry to hear about your situation, I also qualified last year.

I too had both my social wok placements in voluntary organisations, both very different sectors and both gave me fantastic expierience that a lot of fellow students didnt get through their statutory placements! I did worry at the time that it may affect my chances of gaining employment in the statutory sector but that worry didnt last too long.

Like yourself I gained employment through my second year placement and I have now been here as a paid employee ten months. My job title is not a social worker but in the job specification it was an advantage to be a qualified social worker as the type of interventions delivered are often social work based. I do enjoy my role and myself and a collegue had to develop the service from scratch as it was brand new, so the expierience and knowledge I am gaining is invaluable.

Recently I have been considoring a change and had an interview for a social work post, the feedback I got was I gave a fantastic interview and I am ahead of my years in terms of social work expierience, but that someone with more direct expierience got the role. They said they couldnt give me any constructive feedback because it was very positive. This made me feel proud in one way because I had got this feedback, but frustrated that there is little I can do at this time to improve things.

Many of my friends have jobs in the statutory sector, but there are 3 of us from our course working where I am and we do all enjoy our roles. We have all said at some point we want to have a job in the stautory sector, but for now it is good to be working in a related field.

Dont worry too much about being in a role with the title 'social worker' because you can be doing near enough everything that a social worker would be doing in a different role. Look at roles like young persons advisors (as certain charity/statutory based organisations request that you are a social worker qualified to undertake this role), Family Support, Project worker because these will help you to gain the expierience and utilise the knowledge you gained from your social work course.

Try and keep positive!  

don't forget that a lot of social workers are now based in integrated NHS teams (as NHS employees) so it is always worth checking out the NHS jobs webpage at www.jobs.nhs.uk and searching there.  Also, as you have an education to degree standard don't forget your transferable skills - don't undersell yourself!  If you really do want to pursue your social work career (and I really hope you do) hang on in there, it will turn out right in the end.  In the meantime, keep your PRTL up to date by keeping a note of what you read etc and adding a reflective log.  Will be useful when you come to renew your registration and also for interview preparation.

Good luck!

Thanks again for taht escargot,

 I am already registered with the NHS site and am always looking for roles.  I am not going to leave social work am going to still hang on. I have just got a job working with a local authority which i am enjoying unforunately, its only a temp job but i know am building up my experieces.  Now that I am working am recording all the training that I have received so far received for my PRTL.  Thanks for the advice