A Career in Social Work

Social work is about people, who for a variety of reasons may need extra help and support to cope with everyday living. This can be because of the impact of disability, illness, ageing or where there is risk to the safety or well being of children or vulnerable adults. 

Social workers are professionally qualified to assess the needs of individuals, families and communities and plan the individual packages of care and support that are best suited to help them. This requires building relationships and supporting people to enable them to realise their potential, take control of their lives and live as independently as possible. In Northern Ireland social workers and social work students, must be registered with the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC) and abide by the NISCC Code of Practice. This is to ensure that all social workers and social work students are ‘fit to practise’ or ‘fit to undertake practice learning’. More information is available in the Registration section.

NISCC has a statutory duty to set standards and approve training for social work education at qualifying and post qualifying level in NI. We monitor approved social work training to ensure social workers are equipped with the skills and knowledge to meet the needs of people using social care services. Details of our Quality Assurance for social work training is available in Regulating Training. 

This section provides information about training to become a social worker and continuing training for qualified social workers. Information is also available from the NISCC Information Service (Tel 028 9041 7600).

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