# Introduction

This first session is about understanding social care and social work: two areas of practice which offer support and services to different groups of people. There are many different types of social care and social work jobs and services. While every aspect of social care cannot be explored in this course, here are some broad ideas to help you begin to think about this.

Social workers and social care practitioners often choose this type of work because they are motivated by life experiences and want to help people. Working with people in social care and social work can be extremely rewarding.

Increasingly, the term ‘social care’ is used as the umbrella term to encompass both social care functions and social work functions, and both include a wide range of roles within the care sector.

Throughout this session, ‘social care practitioners/professionals’ will be referred to, when talking about both social work and social care. However, where it is appropriate, distinctions are drawn between the roles of social care workers and social workers, and it will be explained why this is important. The umbrella term ‘social care’ is also used to describe types of caring services that differ from health care as they respond to people’s social needs.

When you have studied this session, you should be able to:

- identify the range of social care services in the UK
- explain the distinction between social care and social work
- describe the roles of social care practitioners and social workers.

OpenLearn - Introducing social care and social work
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