Working patterns
Being a social worker working part time and ‘job sharing’ exists. The staffs who work in social work teams also can arrange flexible working hours which enables them to have greater flexibility in their working arrangements whilst meeting service needs and achieving their hours on their contract. This is only available by the Social Services Department who can only offer this to social workers. It is normal for a social worker to work during the night, evenings and weekends however this does interfere with family life, for example they might have children of their own. Therefore they need to be looked after if the mother is working. The social worker also has shift patterns or they might be on ‘call out’.
Maternity pay
Statutory Maternity pay (SMP)
Maternity payment is received from the person employer weekly. To meet the criteria for statutory maternity pay the woman must’ve been employed by the same employer for at least 26 weeks into the 15th week before the baby has been born. The female has to earn an average of £90 a week. If you can't get Statutory Maternity Pay, (from any of your employers if you have more than one) you may be able to get Maternity Allowance instead. SMP is paid for 39 weeks but is paid for the 1st six weeks at 90% of your average weekly earnings. For the remaining 33 weeks they will receive the standard rate which is £117.16
Sick pay
Sick pay
If an employee is sick and unable to work they may be entitled to statutory sick pay which is known as (SSP). However some employers have their own pay scheme. The way statutory sick way works is, it’s paid for all the days you’d be working. This commences on the fourth day of any period of the sickness and lasts for a maximum of 28 weeks. If the person gets ill again within eight weeks of the previous time of the illness they can claim statutory sick pay from the first day.
The statutory sick pay is £75.40 a week.
If a social worker seizes time off work as a result of an illness, then whether they receive pay or not it depends on the terms of the contract of their employment as mentioned above. When they commence their work, it is vital that the employer supplies them with a ‘written statement of employment particulars’ within two months of them beginning work which lays down the details of their sick pay scheme. They also have an entitlement to Statutory Sick Pay which the council provides them with, it is called a occupational sick pay scheme, and this entitlement to employees is periods of full and half pay which is dependent on the length of service. It is a utmost of six months full pay and six months half pay after serving five years.
Retirement
Pension is payments made to a retired person either by the government or by a former employer. There are three key types of pension schemes: a State Pension, a personal pension and a company (occupational) pension.
With a state pension the person can claim a state pension from a certain age and currently for a man its 65 and for women its 60 who were born before the date 5th April 1950.
Between 2010 and 2020 the state pension age for women will increase from 60 to 65 and for men it will increase form 65 to 68 between 2024 and 2046. the way that person has a state pension is by building up enough ‘qualifying years’, and this is a tax year in which they’ve had adequate earnings upon which they have paid, are administered as having been paid or credited with National Insurance contributions.
Personal pension are obtainable from banks, building societies and life insurance companies who invest your savings on your behalf. You can receive an income from the age of 50 from a personal pension but the age will increase to 55 by 2010. However there’s no limit on the amount of pension schemes you to want set up and this won’t effect he entitlement to your basic state pension. The person is entitled to as much money as he/she likes into their personal pension. For every pound they put into the pension the government tops up their pension it with the tax paid by other people.
Each year that person is able to obtain tax relief on your pension contributions up to 100%.
Company pensions are fixed by the employers for their employees. Their employer will make contributions on their behalf but it requires them to pay regular payments from their salary. This also offers a death benefit for your partner if you pass away before them. The person’s employer also provides them with a pension early before the retirement due to ill health. If the person decides to leave their employer they unlikely to be able to contribute payments to the pension scheme.
When the social worker retires at a certain age he/she receives a pension scheme that will pay them a regular income for life. As mentioned above about National Insurance Contributors, the amount of money they will receive depends on that and how much they paid towards it. They can also be entitled to a state pension however it depends on the individual’s circumstances. Company pensions vary from company to company. With a company pension they there are two types of then and these are: ‘final salary scheme’ or ‘money purchase scheme’. In the social workers case he/she will fall into the ‘final salary scheme’ due to they are paid with a salary. The final salary scheme depends on the amount that they receive and how many years they have been present in the scheme. The Local Government Pension scheme covers the pension for the social services department. The social worker has a fixed percentage they have to contribute relating to their income and this is:
6-7% for those who receive between £7,000 - £38,000 per year
9% for those who receive between £38,000 - £80,000
Benefits the social worker receives
They social worker receives benefits from the social services department. The council pays for car allowances and other travel benefits such as car and bicycle loans. Also include annual season and casual car user allowances. Travel grants are available for those who have extra travel costs because of a disability and are given under the government Access to work scheme.
Job security
Social worker will find that their job has a much higher security than other jobs that have a temporary contract. Therefore social workers who have a permanent contract has a advantage of high security as they can’t be jobless unless the social worker decides to give up the job, retires or is without a job due to the less demand of social workers. However there is a need for social workers in the community because they will be needed on the future if the families have disabled children or there are children who are put up for adoption or who maybe even suffer from some sort of harm. Therefore they if this is the case there will be a very high demand in the future. In my opinion social workers job is highly secured as they are most likely needed in families and protecting children whether it is at home or school. Also as technology advances elderly people are living longer which means social workers are needed in this area to as they will need to be assessed by them to achieve the elderly needs. Having different clients keeps the social worker very busy giving them all sorts of tasks to perform which in my opinion provides them with a secure job.
Anti discriminatory practice
Anti discriminatory practice/ legislation commands employers not to discriminate or prejudice against the persons sex, race, disability when taking on new workers on in the progress of the workforce. Larger organisations in the public sector don’t discriminate for example AA the mechanic company they go out fixing peoples cars however keeping their costumers happy which is vital so therefore doing their job which is to assist any race, gender etc they come across.
Interviews are part of the larger organisations therefore in interview boards there is a gender and race mix also there are arrangements made for the disabled people to access facilities. In today’s society it has been vitally assured that the males and females gain the same opportunity as everyone else, such being paid the same with equivalent opportunities for training and promotions.
When a social worker applies to a job in the social work profession the employers must not discriminate against the persons sex, race or disability when they are employing or whilst they are on duty in the job. When interviewing a social worker the employer must not discriminate against gender, for example they can’t ask the women how many children she has or the age she is. If a social worker feels as thought they have been treated unlawfully they have every right to inform their managers. Social worker managers must have the ability to settle any disputes. The government has initiated laws to take any transaction with discrimination in employment. The policies aims are to make sure that no employee experiences discriminatory treatment such as sex discrimination, disability, racial discrimination, criticisms, training and expectations of employees.
Job satisfaction
Sequentially for a social worker to be fulfilled in their everyday job there are certain factors that are at hand. Job satisfaction is important for a variety of reasons for example employers’ benefit from this when the employee is happy with the job she/he is doing. There are certain factors that show how satisfied that person really is.
- characteristics of clients
- social factors
- level of responsibility and significance
- presence of stressors
- personal characteristics of workers
- feedback
- Client outcomes
- Autonomy
Characteristics of clients
Social workers job involves working with different people and many other different client groups. A social worker comes across various people and is involved in different situations such as the clients being aggressive, uncooperative, and impatient or may maintain a mental disorder. Dealing and being present in such situations may get very stressful and he social worker can get emotional. Mental disorder children or adults might have an impact on the social workers and they might feel threatened therefore a social worker’s satisfactions depends on the job role.
Client outcomes
For a social worker as part of their job daily assessments help to see whether their client has improved or not. However if they see that the client is improving then this automatically makes the social worker content and this will boost their confidence and make them more motivated towards their everyday job role. For example if a social worker is working with a young child and her/his observation of that child is improvement it make them job satisfied and they will feel as though they’re carrying out their job role correctly.
Social factors
To a certain extent of job satisfaction, job satisfaction manipulates social factors as what happens with colleagues or the staff and the way they treat the social worker is part of being job satisfied. If they are treated respectively and made part of the group this can also affect the social worker. Staff meetings and parties is a way of bringing everyone together where they are able to socialise.
Level of responsibility and significance
Being a social worker they carry a lot of responsibility. However as part of their job and being qualified as this it can be a case of them enjoying having a high level of responsibility which is an addition of significance of the tasks performed. They all perform different tasks in different situations and some are happy which makes them job satisfied however there are social workers who have to deal with awkward situations and may undergo anxiousness that they wont feel comfortable in due to it maintatining such a high responsibility. The results of high responsibility will lead to the social worker not liking their job.
Presence of stressors
At some stage in the social worker’s life of being a social worker may get stressful at times and they won’t find the job very job satisfying. This can de-motivate them as they would be responsible for the low level of job satisfaction. Social workers job role is dealing with other people’s problems and overcoming them which is very stressful in my opinion and they might feel as though they can’t handle such problems and stress.
Personal characteristics of workers
Everyone’s characteristics are different which has an effect on the satisfaction of the social worker in their job role. Some social workers will enjoy doing the same tasks over and over again meaning they are comfortable doing such tasks like this where as on the other hand there are social worker who hate or despise the fact there carrying out monotonous tasks.
Autonomy
A person has autonomy when they are in control of their own situation such as a social worker might not feel happy about the something which they’ll report to their manager the problems that rouse at work. In the workforce however autonomy isn’t very high as they have to work with experts to make sophisticated decision about clients about the actions that need to be taken. Social workers don’t make decisions about clients alone there often a second party involved to do this. When there is a smaller amount of autonomy involved it’s when another person is on duty therefore they don’t have to do as much work.
