Advice for newly-qualified social workers: Finding employment

The number of social work students increased by between 40 and 70% between 2003 and 2009 (This was in response to a major shortage of social workers).

Job freezes, cut backs and pressures on local authority social work departments in 2010/13 saw overall budget cuts of up to 25%. The Independent sector has also been hit by cuts in funding.

It has become an 'employers market'. Given the choice between a NQSW and an experienced social worker many, but not all, employers will take the latter.

There have been cut backs in the voluntary sector, another major employer of social workers.

It is known that some social workers have taken redundancy and then signed on as social workers for agencies, increasing competition for jobs.

The pressure on social workers has increased because of cut backs and therefore there is less capacity to take students on placement, thereby depriving students of statutory placements.

Some local authorities are reluctant to employ people who have not had a local authority placement even though they have cut back on the number of placements they offer.