Any Canadian Social Workers recruited to the UK?

My husband and I are considering moving to the UK. I am looking for anyone who may have been recruited for work as a Qualified Social Worker. I have a degree here in Canada, and have 4 years work experience in Child and Family Services. My husband has a technologist's training in Electronics and has been employed by the military for the past 3 years. We do have some student loan debt here still, but would probably sell off the rest of our things here and buy new if we were to move. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone here has any experience with the recruiting agencies for social workers - any ones to use/avoid? How long is the process and what is the cost? How easy is it to move yourself, husband, child and cats? I am one generation off of being able to apply for the ancestry visa, which would have helped things out a bit! Any stories or advice or thoughts would be great!

ang

Hi Ang,

Welcome to the site.

I am a social worker who was recruited to work in the UK 3 years ago. As part of the deal, my employer paid my flight over here and my rent for 6 months. One of the benefits I have is a car lease for £40/month. A pretty good deal I think.

I came over with BBT (Something Blake Thomas) and I would definately NOT recommend them. A friend of mine came over with BlueCAre and had a good expreince, but I am not recommending anyone.

Do you want to work *agency* (like a temp I guess) or do you want to work for a local authority? If you work agency, you get more money per hour, but you don't get holiday or sick time, pensions, and that kind of thing. There are some perks and added stability working for the LA, but the drawback is, it IS an LA.

I was able to obtain Dutch citizenship, so the visa was not an issue for me. However, there is such a great need for social workers here that getting a visa should not be an issue and either your recruiter or you employer will apply for you. The current vacancy rate for social worker is about 17%, so you might be able to negotiate yourself a nice package.

If you have an idea where you want to live or even just want to check things out, look up a council's website and check out their jobs section. Or check out the jobs in CommunityCare magazine to get an idea of what is out there.

It was easy enough moving just myself out here, although I had never been here before and didn't know a soul! But I can't speak for what it would be like bring a family. Fortunately my employer set me up in a place to start (dire as it was) and two of my flatmates also worked for them, so that made it easier.

Hope that helps. I think if you click on *all my posts* you will see my response to others with similar questions. Feel free to PM if I can help with any other questions.

Good luck.