A day in the life
Jade Sargent – Residential home manager
Well, where do I begin! Every day is different in being a Home Manager and most of the morning is catching up with the staff and children from the night or weekend before. In my house there is tea and a lot of laughter first thing, with a little added dash of ‘organised chaos’.
Being the Home Manager is all about leading and guiding the team to the best possible outcomes for our children, having positive relationships with everyone and a lot of nagging! I go through the checks and inputs from over the weekend and it always makes me laugh and smile when I read what our children have been up to.
The best part of being a Home Manager is the daily reflection of how far your team and young people are growing, this could be the smallest success, such as they have finally managed to tidy their room or achieving greatness by attending their first day of work. I love to see our staff come on in leaps and bounds, finding their niche areas, and pushing their passion into supporting the young people in the home. Every day is different, but the passion and care remain consistent.
Toby Shears-Brown – Project Service Manager
Working in supported accommodation for leaving care is a lot different to working in a residential environment. The care-leavers are a lot more independent and need less individual support, however working with up to 19 different care-leavers can be challenging.
Staff support care-leavers through 1:1 support, workshops, and activities. Staff have various other duties dependent on their role. These include things such as CCTV monitoring, dealing with maintenance issues, cleaning, tracking outcomes, supporting education and employment, and assisting with housing outcomes. The list is very wide ranging, but the most important thing is just being there for them and listening to what they have to say. Support can be a five-minute chat with a cup of tea or can be a supporting them for several hours when they are at their lowest.
There are many things you can say about working with care-leavers, such as challenging, rewarding, difficult, but boring never enters the conversation.
