Can you describe your journey into being a Deputy Team Leader in the Family Support Service?
I started as a volunteer in 2012 at the Children’s Centre’s Nursery while competing the NVQ3 in Child Care online. I completed the online course in April which supported me to apply for Creche worker in the Children’s Centre. With this new knowledge from the course, it allowed me to apply this in practice and support my professional development. When the Children’s Centre Assistant position was available at the Children’s Centre, it interested me to work with the families and support children’s development through empowering the parents with information. After two years experience, I naturally applied for the Children’s Centre Worker role as this further supported with my professional development by having extra responsibilities, such as coordinating sessions and having low level outreach support with families. This role also allowed me to practice my creative skills such as being involved in starting new sessions, such as Gardening club, Me time for parents who were isolated and needed some time to build their confidence and support with emotional well-being through art and craft. After another 2 years in this role, an opportunity arose for me to only focus on outreach and I was successful in a Outreach Coordinator/ Senior Family Support Worker role. This allowed me to further develop my professional skills supporting families with parenting from the antenatal stage and with children up to age of five. I was in this role for six years, when again it felt a natural progression to further develop my skills and I was successful at the Deputy Team role in the Early Start team.
What support do you get from your employer?
Throughout my journey, I had access to relevant training, which were explored in my termly supervisions and yearly appraisal. I was given the opportunity to shadow my colleagues to gain a better understanding of the new roles that I have started or expressed interest in. Safeguarding was always of a high quality within the service and this supported me to develop professionally and to explore the different roles in supporting outreach families and my colleagues. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the service was very supportive by allowing us flexible working from home and appropriate health and safety measures were put in place to transition back to office working and face-to-face with families. The service also offered support regarding mental well-being throughout the pandemic, by providing opportunities for training and also time within the team.
What do you look for when recruiting into the Family Support Service?
We look for empathic, resilient, non-judgmental, eager to learn and develop, motivated individuals. In the service each day can be very different, so being flexible definitely helps. Having a good sense of humour can also support the team.
What support is available to staff joining the service?
Staff joining the service will be welcomed by their line manager and the team by having a plan of shadowing other members of the team and access to policies, which gives an insight of expectations, responsibilities and what is offered to the individual. Termly supervisions and yearly appraisals will continuously offer opportunities to reflect and discuss ways of professional development. Weekly team meetings allow staff to share concerns, celebrations within the team.
Why would you recommend joining the service?
It is a rewarding job seeing and knowing the children are having opportunities to experience a better start in life and supporting the next generation with their physical and emotional development.