Hello,
I am newly qualified social worker. I have got my registration in March. As everybody knows, it is very difficult work as a social worker expecially for newly qualified social workers. Public and Private do not offer any placement work.
I was considering the idea to work as self employed.
I have done some research but I have not found any social workers self employed . Is it possible work independently as a therapist?
Thanks
I work part time and also as an independent assessor for a private fostering agency doing Form F assessments.
Freya
Hi Freya,
thanks so much for your reply.
Can you be more specific please? I mean, how do you organise your `self eployed job`? Which kind of services do you offer to the client? Is it related to fostering? I have recently contacted a private fostering agencie but I do not have experience in working with children. Will it be difficult for me to get into this field?What do you do in order to work as an indipendent social worker?
Sorry, too many questions. I am interested.
Cristina
From what I've seen independent social workers do all kinds of things - specialist assessments, parenting assessments, fostering / kinship assessments, children's guardian, even Child Protection Chairs and Independent Reviewing Officers. They can also be involved with training and teaching social work. However they almost always seem to come to this after a few years experience working for local authorities, often up to manager level.
I can't think of a way into this type of work without substantial experience as most ISWs trade on the quality of their CVs. If you have only just qulified then by default your SW CV is going to look a little thin.
As a NQSW I do not think that there would be any call on your Services - you would have no 'track record' to offer of achievements / expertise and it would be too risky to employ you in that capacity.
Where would you get independent Supervision from?
Do you have personal / professional indemnity insurance?
Do you have a current CRB?
What about References?
this is exactly what i want to do when we move back to the uk later in the year. i've got 11 yrs experience but never worked in foster care or with children. is there training you can do for Form F assessors?
I have just seen your post, and I am thinking about doing some form f assessments alongside my full time job for the local authority. I was wondering how long a form f usually takes? How many hours do you spend on one application in total? Or does it differ from family to family?
Danielle
I'm not sure what type of therapist you are alluding to with a SW qualification?
I have always found it pretty easy finding work as a self-employed Form F assessor. It's a case of phoning private foster agencies and asking if they are recruiting assessors. Most don't employ assessors as the work isn't very consistent but if you assess for a few agencies you can usually get a decent amount of work.
The process would be to phone HMRC to register as self-employed. The agencies usually pay around £1500+ travel expenses 40p/mile per assessment when it has been to panel. If the applicants aren't successful orpull out I charged the agency £25/hour for the hours I had already done. I think my assessments involved about 6-8 separate (hour-long) visits to the applicants and and then time to write-up the assessment. I recall working it out at 50 hours work per assessment.
there are jobs as such on job centre plus as we speak!
cant see you getting any work if your nqsw tho surely?
I work as a self employed locum and independant assessor and do work for 4 various authorities.
This is based on 7 years post qualifying work in front line, high level CP cases LAC, court work, care order applications and adoptions.
you will stuggle to get Locum work with no post qualifying experience. Generally authorities want locums to hit the ground running and are not able to walk you though the process's where you will surely struggle with no experience.
Your research clearly needs to improve as there at least 15 self employed social workers in the building i currently work in.
Get the relevant experience, just cos youve got the badge doesnt mean your in the club !!!!
Regards