Social, Caring and Advisory Services

You have to be a real ‘people person’ to work in this career area. In most jobs you would work with clients and their families, often over a long period of time. You might be:

• giving advice and information – about welfare rights, education, money, careers or jobs – to people who ask you for it
• working with small children in playgroups, nurseries or their own homes
• running a community education centre, involving local people of all ages in different learning activities
• counselling people to help them sort out problems in their lives – to do this you must develop a trusting relationship with your client
• working in social work or social care, supporting and helping vulnerable people – children, older people, disabled people, people with alcohol and drug problems – in the community or in residential homes.

To succeed in this area, you should be able to build up a good relationship with your clients. You need to be friendly, caring, calm, patient and willing to listen.

It can be quite difficult to get a job in advisory and counselling services, although there are lots of voluntary opportunities. Counsellors work in advice centres, doctors’ surgeries and for charities. Some work on helplines. Jobs for paid counsellors are increasing but most still do voluntary work to gain experience first. Community learning and development work includes adult learning, youth work and a wide range of other community support and development jobs. Full time staff make up 36% of the paid public sector workforce, 17% work part time and 47% work on a sessional basis. In the third sector, including charities, almost half of people involved in community learning and development (CLD) are volunteers. Only about a third of paid staff are employed full time, 71% are employed on a part time or sessional basis. Around 16% of the CLD workforce in Scotland are male, although men have higher representation in subsectors such as criminal justice. In 2012, over 191,120 people were working in social services in Scotland, in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Over 80% of the staff are female. The largest sub sectors are housing support/care at home, care homes for adults and day care for children; together these account for almost 76% of the social services workforce. Job prospects are likely to remain fairly good, and employment levels in some areas are set to continue to grow. People are living longer and we have an ageing population. It is estimated that the number of people aged 65 and over will account for 23% of the total population by 2035, leading to a huge increase in demand for social care and health services. And, the number of working parents is still growing, creating a demand for child care. Another trend has been the growth of the private and voluntary sectors in social services, as local authorities contract out care services. The private sector accounts for 42% of the social services workforce; the public sector 33% and the voluntary sector for 25% of the workforce. However, 69.5% of the workforce in care homes for adults are employed by the private sector. Scotland's childcare workforce has also been growing, there are now around 36,000 paid staff working in the day care of children and another 5,810 or more working as childminders. Child care workers are mainly female, less than 4% are male.

84% of those working directly with children have a relevant qualification. 74% have a qualification at Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) Level 3 or above. You can study for SVQs in child care and social care while you are working. You can also take qualifications before you apply for a job. There are courses in caring subjects at all levels, from 1-year National Certificates (NC) or National Qualifications (NQ), through Higher National Certificates (HNC) and Higher National Diplomas (HND) to degrees. To be a careers adviser, community educator or social worker you must have an appropriate degree or postgraduate qualification. The jobs and courses in this career area have been divided into 5 sectors:

• advisory services
• child care and education
• community education
• counselling
• social work or social care.

Sources

Pre-school and Childcare Workforce Statistics (2010) - Scottish Government

Profile for the Community Learning and Development Workforce in Scotland, 2010; Lifelong Learning UK Scotland

Scottish Social Services Sector: Report on 2012 Workforce Data (Scottish Social Services Council)

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