Why we changed careers to work with children

Recruitment is an issue for many key public services and the children’s and youth sector is no exception.

Staff retention in children’s social services is a struggle that seems to get harder year by year. Research in 2019 by Bath Spa University suggests about 40 per cent of social workers are looking to leave the profession within the next 15 months.

The early years sector is also finding it increasingly difficult to recruit skilled staff. A survey by the National Day Nurseries Association for 2018/19 found the number of early years workers qualified to Level 3 had fallen from 83 per cent to barely half – 52 per cent. Almost half of all nursery staff leave the sector to work in retail.

“Over the last five years we’ve seen a real decline in support for social workers,” says John McGowan, general secretary of the Social Workers Union. According to him, austerity is the main reason.

Social workers last on average four or five years. McGowan believes whether you stay or go depends on whether you join a well-led team with a manageable caseload. The union’s research shows social workers work an extra 11 hours a week on top of what they are paid for.

“It doesn’t appear to be a skills issue,” says Rachael Wardell, who leads on workforce issues for the Association of Directors of Children’s Services. The salary also holds up well in comparison with other jobs, she points out. “It’s a hard sector to work in,” she concludes.

Attracting people from other sectors could help fill vacancies and bring new skills and perspectives. In recent years there has been a proliferation of fast-track graduate recruitment schemes in social work, teaching and youth justice designed to attract those who may not have initially considered working with children and young people. While there is a need for more bodies on the ground, Wardell is wary of suggesting the sector is in some way lacking.

“What I wouldn’t say is that people coming in from outside the sector are any better than people already in it. Because you can get that variety in the sector already,” she says.

She believes key messages that would help attract new people include the rewards of “changing the course of a person’s entire life”.

Here, six children’s services professionals explain why they changed career to join the sector and what could be done to make it easier for others to do the same.

HELEN GORMLEY

‘I tried floristry and banking before finding a job I love in social work’

• Current job Senior social worker for Gloucestershire County Council
• Previous role Floristy and personal banking

“Looking like a punky girl I was not easily employable in the early 1990s,” recalls Helen Gormley (pictured above). “I had an eight-inch coloured Mohawk, tattoos and two young children who restricted my ability to work.” Her then partner’s mother got her a job at a florist’s. Afterwards she worked in a bank as a personal banking manager but was told she couldn’t go any further because of her tattoos and hair. She wanted to do something more worthwhile and began working for a care company. It gave her the idea to become a social worker. She took an NVQ3 in health and social care which allowed her to do a social work degree. This involved sacrifices – she had to go on benefits when at university and had to take out a student loan for her three-year course that she is now paying off. The bonus is that working as a social worker she is now earning far more than she used to and has just bought her first house. However, it is hard work. “I’m doing just as many hours unpaid as ones I get paid,” says Gormley.

She believes her background has made her ideally qualified to be a children’s social worker. She has an autistic child, has lived in social housing since she was 16 and worked in various jobs – she taught taekwondo for a while and in her spare time is a motorcycle trainer. “I’ve walked in the shoes of the people I’m supporting and lived traumas they are going through so relate that little bit better.”

Some of her clients have debts and struggle to pay the rent. Her time at the bank means she can give them advice and point them in the right direction. She loves the job and says the families she works with make it all worthwhile, but adds that funding issues and bureaucracy can sometimes get in the way of providing the right support, which is frustrating. “You need to go in with your eyes wide open and because you genuinely want to help someone. It needs to be a passion in your blood,” she says.

JESSICA BROWN

‘I don’t regret retraining for a second’

• Current job Health visitor
• Previous role Chef

When Jessica Brown left school she had no idea what she wanted to do. Food Tech was her best GCSE grade so she became a chef and ended up running the carvery at a chain hotel for six years. When she had her daughter she needed a job with more family-friendly hours, better pay and the chance to progress. She began training to be a health visitor, believing she had something to offer from her own experience of becoming a young mum. She had to do an access course followed by a three-year degree in children’s nursing at Plymouth University. There was then a further year’s course in public health nursing. She carried on working as a chef at weekends to help pay the bills. She ran up a student loan of £6,500 but the reward was “a really big pay increase” once she began working. She was 26 when she qualified after a “massive investment in time” but doesn’t regret it for a second. “I love my job,” she says. A key element is building relationships. She normally enters a child’s life about two weeks after they are born and loves the fact she can follow their progress until they are five. She can’t always spend as long as she’d like with a family and her previous job has helped her when it comes to timekeeping, she says. “You’ll hear chefs talk about an internal clock – and that does really help. I can sense when a conversation has gone on longer than it should.” Deadlines, team building, dealing with criticism from customers – these are all transferrable skills she has taken with her.

Brown says the hardest aspect of working as a health visitor is the high staff turnover which can leave her overworked. She believes the best way to attract more people into the sector would be to restore the full nursing bursary including paying university tuition fees.

STEVE REDDY

‘Changing to children’s services gave my career a second wind and boosted my motivation’

• Current job Director of children’s services, Liverpool City Council
• Previous role Worked for the police

Steve Reddy studied psychology and criminology, followed by a master’s in investigative psychology. It led to seven years working for Lancashire Constabulary and then Merseyside Police, latterly as head of strategic analysis. “At the police you’re dealing with the symptoms and not the causes – I wanted to go upstream,” he says. He moved to Warrington Borough Council and realised working with children was what he was really interested in. “I found a second wind in my career, I was more motivated again.” When the job of children’s services director came up at Liverpool City Council he leapt at the chance.

He received a slight salary increase. With his degree, master’s and an MBA, he didn’t need to retrain. The main challenge after the police was patience as the pace of decision-making in local government is slower, he says.

Can a background elsewhere be a plus? “The issue is where your management experience has been,” says Reddy. “If you’ve got senior management in retail you can’t really jump across as I have.” But working for the police, social services, youth services or something similar transfers well, he believes. His background was useful when his team supported Merseyside Police to draw up an improvement plan following an inspection that emphasised the need to ensure children’s views were heard.

Reddy says the best part of the job is “when you see the important work of our team”. Even in cases where a child needs to be removed, the way the process is handled makes all the difference and families can be positive about the way staff worked with them. The hardest part is those safeguarding cases involving “the most horrific treatment of children”, which he says are few and far between. “For all the challenges it’s massively rewarding, you’ve contributed and made a difference.” He feels the sector could do more to sell the positive impact it is possible to make on a young person and their family.

JON POWTON

‘Being a foster carer made me a better person’

• Current job Foster carer
• Previous role Engineer

As a boy Jon Powton wanted to be in the armed forces. But being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy made him ineligible so he became an engineer in the shipyards of Middlesbrough and the Clyde instead. He went on to work as an architectural engineer but his disability prevented him from continuing so he decided to become a foster carer. He loved spending time with children but his condition prevented him from having his own. Plus he could work from home.

He was unemployed at the time so saw an increase in income although it was much less than he earned as an engineer. The main challenge was the responsibility involved in looking after other people’s children. The training he received was vital in giving him the necessary confidence, he says. He believes his background also helped. “I grew up and trained in a hard sector of industry. It taught me a lot about people, as did all my own life traumas.”

There are drawbacks to the job. It can be restrictive and puts you “at the beck and call of others”. But overall it is a huge positive in his life. “I love being a foster carer, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” says Powton. “It made me a better person, more compassionate, more selfless, more joyful and more intelligent. The best bits are the kids, hands down. They’re amazing and life affirming.” With foster carers in short supply he believes the sector should advertise on TV to attract new people.

LOWRI MIFSUD

‘I’m doing childcare qualifications so I can support my nursery staff’

• Current job Owner, Plantos Nursery, Cardiff
• Previous role Commercial property lawyer

Lowri Mifsud went into commercial property law because there was a vacancy at her first law firm. But by the time she had her second child, working as a solicitor was hardly worth it once childcare costs were taken into account. So she and her husband bought a nursery in Cardiff.

It meant she could spend more time with her children and not give up on a career. The nursery has 80 children on its books, with a manager and team of staff to do the day-to-day work.

As well as safeguarding training, Mifsud has just done a Level 3 childcare qualification and is currently doing Level 5. “It’s important for me to do courses to understand what my team of staff do,” she says. She admits running the business has been a challenge “trying to stay competitive in price and pay staff a fair wage at the same time”.

“It’s challenging on an emotional level too because you are dealing with children. People think you are just in it for the money but you’re not – it’s the child that matters.”

Her legal expertise gives her a helping hand with management tasks. “Payroll, invoicing, HR, disciplinary, complaints are not intimidating,” she says. But she was conscious her lack of professional childcare expertise could alienate staff and parents. “If I had gone into the nursery with a solicitor’s hat on I wouldn’t come across well,” she says. So instead she always tries to think like a new mother, knowing how hard it is for parents to leave their child at a nursery. In the end it’s all worth it, she says. “You get so many thank yous from families when their children leave us to go to school. It’s only when they leave that people say how wonderful you are.” The abolition of business rates in Wales in 2018 helped with costs. But recruitment is tough and getting harder. She believes the nursery sector would have more chance of recruiting from other careers if it paid higher wages. More incentives or grants would help with this.

RACHAEL WARDELL

‘I realised I could make a difference by working in children’s services’

• Current job Director of children, schools and families, London Borough of Merton
• Previous role Worked in legal services and at Ofsted

Rachael Wardell went to work for the Legal Aid Board – now Legal Aid Agency – the body that administers legal aid. She was attracted by their public service focus but after seven years the work was becoming repetitive. She moved to Ofsted and it was here she discovered a passion for working with children. “It was really clear how much of a difference you made by getting things right and by focusing on the early years,” she recalls. She moved to Wokingham Borough Council as assistant director in the children’s services team. “I was a serial career changer. So it didn’t feel like a stretch in terms of difficulty.” Is there a benefit in having a background elsewhere? “Alternative perspectives are always beneficial. And you can find parallels from your previous sector.” Her Ofsted background has also helped her take a more measured view of inspections. “Ofsted is just another organisation, they are human beings, some of the agitation people feel towards Ofsted I don’t feel. The inspectors are just other people like us.”

The sector has accepted her with warmth and kindness, she says. What she loves about the job is “when we’re able to keep a family together” and see them begin to thrive. “The worst part is the reverse of that – when you’ve tried really hard and haven’t succeeded.” She would encourage people to join the sector on two provisos – genuine interest in helping children and families, and being able to “take the rough with the smooth”. There is more the sector could do to bring in staff from other careers, she says. “We need to find ways of explaining just how much variety there is in the sector – social work is not all we do, there are lots of different ways people can be involved in changing children’s lives for the better.”