While plenty of social workers manage to thrive in the profession, stories of stress and difficulty continue to abound, with high caseloads and overly bureaucratic systems just two of the litany of impediments to getting through a week in one piece.

Reflecting back on her 18 years in the profession, the question of how to survive, and ideally thrive, in social work occurred to Fay Hunkins Walcott Here, she offers some of her experience and gives her top seven tips for making it in social work;

I qualified as a social worker in 1995 after a tumultuous five years completing my degree because I was building a family at the same time. Before starting the course, I had one child. By the time I qualified I had three, with another one born just two months after I graduated.

My initial ambition was to work in mental health but you have to be flexible and my first job ended up being within a high-profile child protection team. I began with strong comictions, though quickly became aware of the limitations of my knowledge. I was keen to learn and – most importantly – wanted to be given the chance to learn.

So I requested a year in generic practice before starting in child protection, to build up my expertise, While studying to be a social worker, we were told we should be in generic practice for two years before specialising, but in the real world new recruits regularly handle child protection cases within months of qualifying. In the end, I managed to reach a compromise and it was agreed I would get nine months non-specialist practice. During that time I observed, trained, researched and reflected on the work I was doing.

Working as a child protection officer was a great learning curve for me. I hadn’t wanted to work in that field originally but once in it, I applied myself to the task by reading up on legislation, getting to grips with my specific role within the Children’s Act (1989), its welfare principles, and understanding who is my client.

That said. the work was still very hard. I had a caseload of 32 children with 12 families on the, child protection register. These families often had more than three children each and I was being asked to work with them despite only having been qualified for a year. As is so often the case, I was dealing with parents who were unable and sometimes unwilling to move forward for their children.

Working in the team, I met some really good people who remain friends to this day. We still meet for coffee 15 years on and 12 years after we stopped working together. As with all real friendships, the relationships between us as colleagues grew organically but such peer support should be on the list of anyone looking’ to sustain long and successful careers in social work, My friendships have provided continuity, solidarity, the chance to share good practice and the focus for disgorging a few choice words when frustrated!

After three years in child protection, I felt it was time for a change. The clients seem to be merging – their difficulties and their concerns repeated over and over again. I also became increasingly frustrated with the paperwork and lack of resources.

My initial desire to work in mental health remained undimmed, so when a post came up in an Emergency Duty Team (EDT), I moved location and jobs. There are two important lessons here – stay focused on what motivates you and be prepared to keep moving to get what you want. I loved this job – the night shifts, the emergencies, the unknown – and I got my approved mental health training in the process, My placement involved two weeks at Broadmoor Hospital alongside the Swindon Community Mental Health Team (CMHT), which turned out to be the best post I ever had and offered a fantastic chance to begin my career in the field.

I did two years there but eventually had to move back to the West Midlands for family reasons where I worked with various mental health teams based in Walsall, Solihull and Birmingham. I worked within EDT, CMHT, assertive outreach services and crisis intervention teams. I was able to shift around so much because after a period in local government I moved into agency work and finally became an independent social worker.

I found this much more liberating and it also earned me more money, enabling me to work fewer hours and spend more time with my family. All these changes gave me a chance to hone my skills. Being managed by different professionals and seeing theoretical dilemmas being worked out within multi-disciplinary meetings offered a good basis for learning. It was also interesting to observe the professional tug-of-war that takes place over who doeswhich work in multi-professional teams.

At the time, however, I was often frustrated and confused by the amount of time spent on such activities. There was so much paperwork, talking, reviewing, assessing, and not much doing. What kept me going and enabled me to maintain my enthusiasm, however, wasknowing what kind of social worker I wasturning out to be. I knew the values I had subsumed, what was important to me and what I still needed to work on. As such, I was motivated to get through the difficult periods because I still believed in social work – itsethos, its reason for being a profession and its place in society.

I have always kept close to the ethics and values of social work and part of keeping that alive was becoming a practice teacher. Having students question why you practi.ce and the way you practice can really help you grow anddevelop your own unique place within a team. But you have to have the confidence to answer some tough questions and be willing to keep reflecting on your practice.

Though I have never doubted the power of social work, I am absolutely clear that I am not the one who can change lives. What I can offer are opportunities for families and individuals to consider changing their lives throughknowledge, advice and support. I can also, sometimes, offer resources, but only when Ihave access to them.

This knowledge has helped me to stay focused and know where I want to go next -and there is always somewhere to go next. This does not necessarily mean a geographical move. Moving around is advantageous on a number of levels. The old adage comes to mind ‘a change is as good as a rest’. It’s nice to start again withnew colleagues or new client groups, especiallyif you have a healthy attitude to change and challenge. If you find this difficult, then smaller changes within the same service can be helpful. Moving allows you to positively review your professional practice and hone skills.

The ability to stay focused takes some juggling, but is well worth the effort. Retaining this focus makes it more likely that you will stay in control of your practice, your value base and your work-life balance.

Being focused is easier said than done of course, and requires good reflective skills andthe ability to stay grounded. I loved my time in social work. I had some very challenging and difficult times, but my memories are fond and I still have a great desire to actively engage in promoting social work as a valid and necessary profession within society.

Though I stopped working as a practising social worker in 2006, I continue to use the skills learned to further my career in mental health as an adviser to a higher education establishment, as well as a trainer and mentor.