Social care is about providing physical, emotional, and social support to help people live their lives. For various reasons and at different stages in their lives, some people need support to develop and maintain their independence, dignity, and control.
Social care provides a whole range of services to support adults and older people.
If you work in social care, you could help people in their own homes, in residential homes or in several other places such as day centres or supported housing.
Working in adult social care is not just an emotionally rewarding role, it’s one of the most varied too. Working with a range of people with different care needs means every day is different to the next.
Benefits include:
- One of the most in-demand and rewarding roles in the UK.
- The opportunity to train as you learn.
- Ongoing career progression and training opportunities.
- Long-term employment prospects and job security.
To work in adult social care, you’ll need to have good communication skills and a desire to help others.
- You’ll support people who need additional help to live independently.
- You could support someone in their own home or a residential home, or invite someone to live with you through a Shared Lives scheme.
- You’ll have plenty of opportunity to progress and gain formal qualifications whilst you work.
Requirements
What sort of person do I need to be?
It often doesn’t matter about your background or how old you are, if you want to help people there’s a social care job for you.
What’s really important is your values.
What skills do I need?
You might also need a certain set of skills for particular roles, as well as core skills of English, number, digital and employability skills such as problem solving and team work.
There are some qualifications you might want to do to get a taster of what it’s like to work in social care:
- Level 1 Award in Preparing to work in the care sector
- Level 2 or 3 Certificate in Preparing to work in the care sector.
