Do you hire in social work/housing/with QSWs?

I need someone who is in hiring for social work, especially if you have hired newly qualified social workers before. Trying to revamp my CV for the UK market and since I've been out of the field a while, it doesn't look very good. Also, if you are in hiring, would you mind taking a look at my cover letter and tell me if it's shite or not? I need to explain my absence from social work for the past 8 years and my absence from work in general for the past 16 months.

Thank you!

P.S. Please PM me if you're able to do all this.

Isn't Sainsbury's Ed in this game? PM him, Jenne...

He is, I'm looking for other input as well. He is helping me find work but I want to talk directly to people who do the hiring in agencies.

Jenne, by the looks of the adverts they are running and the aftermarth of the Baby P and other problems, I thinnk that they would jump at the chance of securing someone with your experience. Have you tried simply phoning an agency and asking for a chat?

Nah, my experience is quite a ways back and none of it is UK so I'm running into some problems. Basically, because my education wasn't in the UK, I didn't learn the relevant laws for here, but have discovered, for instance, the Children Acts of 1989 and 2004 and Skills and Leisure Act 2000. Am just trying to fill in the missing pieces without really know what I'm missing. I have just hit upon the idea that perhaps I ought to phone up university sw programs to see if they can guide me at all so will be doing that tomorrow.

Social work in the uk is fucked.

People with the relvant qualifications and a lack of experience are completely ignored whilst those with 2+ years experience are so overpaid that local authorities who are fully staffed have such limited resources that they are contributing to the neglect of children.

Ed, I was quite surprised to see a lot of ads paying £21/hr for new graduates through Reed. WHAT? That should only be for highly experienced practitioners. Though I wouldn't be averse to a little of that.