Interviewer: “This is a social worker podcast from the IDeA. Social work is a highly rewarding career and one that makes a real and positive contribution to the lives of children adults and families. There are a number of ways to become a social worker and in this podcast we hear from Juliette, a successful teacher, who changed her career to become a full-time social worker”

Juliette: “ I made the decision at that stage to retrain to become a social worker because I enjoyed working with the social care issues so much.”

Interviewer: “And has she any regrets?”

Juliette: “Not at all, I just really enjoy what I do now.”

(Time: 00.41 – 04.02) Juliette Blake Interview

Juliette: “I’m Juliette Blake, I’m a social worker in the reception and assessment team and I work with children and families.”

Interviewer: “Juliette, you chose to leave a well-paid job as a teacher to retrain as a social worker, what made you decide to change career?”

Juliette: “I initially started teaching in a special measures school in Kent and it was based in a socially deprived area and I worked with lots of children who had social care issues. I then moved to a very successful school in Norfolk, but never really enjoyed the job as much as I did the first school and I made the decision at that stage to retrain to become a social worker because I enjoyed working with the social care issues so much.”

Interviewer: “You’ve obviously been used to a regular and probably very good salary as well, so it must have been really difficult for you to fund your training, how did you manage it?”

Juliette: “Initially I looked into undertaking a social work degree whilst still teaching, but I couldn’t do that because I wasn’t working in a social care setting. So luckily the General Social Care Council provide a bursary for people who are undertaking social work training and I was also able to top that up by undertaking some supply work as well.”

Interviewer: “You are now work in a reception and assessment team, how did you decide that this was the area of social work that you actually wanted to go in to?”

Juliette: “Well coming from a teaching background, I knew I wanted to work with children and I then undertook three different placements whilst I was on my training. One was in a mental health team and I really enjoyed it. It was working with older people who were actually mentally ill at the time, but really enjoyed the setting, but still wanted to work with children. My second placement was in a reception and assessment team, undertaking core assessments which are long 35 day assessments and I really enjoyed the fast pace work of that and also analysing and assessing to make sure children were safe. The final placement was in a hospital setting and after those three different placements, I made the decision that actually I wanted to stay in the children and family setting and work in a reception and assessment team.”

Interviewer: “Do you actually spend all of your time now in the field or is there a lot of paperwork that you have to do as well?”

Juliette: “There is quite a lot of paperwork, but a lot of the paperwork is essential as part of the social work and for me, when you go into a family, you don’t always have time to assess or analyse what you are seeing and gather in the information together as well. So for me undertaking the paperwork is the actual time to start analysing all of the information that you’ve gathered together and start putting the theories into practice. So until I complete my assessment, I can’t make a decision whether or not a child is safe.”

Interviewer: “How you ever regretted your decision to change career?”

Juliette: “Not at all, I just really enjoy what I do now and I feel that I make a difference for children, so no.”

Interviewer: “If you were to give some advice to anybody who’s considering changing their career to become a social worker, what would that be?”

Juliette: “I think if you have a passion and you think that everybody deserves equal opportunities and that everybody deserves to live in a world where they don’t feel frightened by anything and also that you want to make sure that everybody is safe, then social work is an ideal career choice.”

Interviewer: “To find out more about becoming a social worker go to www.lgcareers.com or www.socialworkcareers.co.uk

You’ve been listening to a social worker podcast from the IDeA, produced by Ten Horizon.”

End