SUPPORT WORKERS

The people we care for

Many of the young people we support have very tragic backgrounds and have often been through the care system or mental health care which may have not worked for them. Many will be managing multiple personal challenges. In some cases these challenges stem from childhood trauma and in extreme cases, abuse. This is why we exist.

Our team and a little about their roles

Our team of support workers are the ones who truly make a difference to young people’s lives. Isn’t it quite something to be able to say that. They’re an interesting mixture of individuals and what unites them is an innate sense of caring for others and helping them do the right thing.

They’re people from the care sector, military-leavers, teachers, ex-medical people, close protection and more.

You’ll become a crucial part of the young person’s life, working with them as a mentor and even protector within the setting supporting the family, or at another locality provided by the local authority. You’ll help them develop many skills over time as part of their individual care plan.

It’s true that the role can be both mentally and often physically challenging as most of our service users will display very difficult behaviour and some cannot communicate very well at all. But, it’s hugely rewarding.

At PCG, the complex care we provide is based up on a kind and focussed person-centred approach which is tailored to each young person as an individual.  To ensure consistency, our shift patterns revolve around rolling 4 shifts on and 4 shifts off.

These include a combination of 12-hour day, 12-hour waking nights, and days-into-sleeping night shifts. The days-into-sleeping nights is the only shift awarded an enhanced shift allowance.

Rotas are designed to meet the needs of the individual, so we all apply a flexible approach to ensure we can provide the very best care possible.

We support you from day one which starts with a 2 week induction and training module, then ongoing courses during the year. We’ll also help you become level 3, and in some cases level 5 qualified in order to help develop your career into leadership and management.

AND SO THE DAY BEGINS…

7am

The team manager and support staff have a coffee and a mini-meeting for up-and-coming events for the day. As a support worker I work through my daily checklist to ensure that I know what tasks need to be completed today.

At 9am

Our young person’s (we’ll call them YP) alarm goes off and I encourage them to make their bed, helping give a little routine at the start of each day. Then it’s off to the bathroom so they wash, clean their teeth and get dressed.

About 9.30am

It’s breakfast time so we talk about the day ahead, what’s coming up and importantly how they’re feeling about it. They’re worried about the new speech and language therapist they’re meeting later on. After breakfast, it’s time for them to take their medication, which is part of their over-arching medication plan. The YP takes it in a designated area, not in their bedroom, as we respect that’s their own personal space.

10.00am

It’s tuition time. This can be delivered at the placement setting or in school. Today we’re taking them to school. We’ve written a handover for the tutors so they know what’s been happening since the last time they saw them, even though the session is only for up to 3 hours.

While in tuition, we set about cleaning and tidying the house, writing a food-shopping list, checking our vehicle over with oil level and tyre pressure checks. I try to get ahead by starting the daily report and checking the activity planner ahead of this afternoon. At the last minute I remember to check the weekly budget for the young person’s food, pocket money and savings. Before collecting them from tuition, I run through some more checks, but I can only get the water temperature and fire alarm checks done, the others I’ll do tonight.

From lunchtime

We discuss with our YP what activities they’d like to do during the day. As the weather looks OK we weigh up football in the park, a walk or even visiting the beach. It’s all in-line with careful risk assessments. Of course we track it on our activity log but the most important thing, by far, is having fun, getting some exercise and fresh air.

4.00pm

We have an appointment with our YP and the speech and language team. As there’s a new therapist we’ll be meeting I ask the young person how they’re feeling and what questions they have which results in a really good chat about what to expect and how we can get to know them at the right pace for the young person. The session was awkward but OK. After, the young person told me that they don’t like them and don’t want to see them again. They asked me to stop the car and let them go into the news agents. I worried they might want to run off but after 3 or 4 minutes we’re back in the car and before we set off, they pass me a chocolate bar to say thank you. This is why they wanted to stop the car.

6.00pm

We’re back at the placement setting, finally. As part of their meal plan, my colleague’s cooking spaghetti bolognese tonight, our YP’s favourite. Mine too! They go off to their room but quickly come back a little over-excited as they’ve thought of a film they want to watch right now. We’ve seen the film several times lately but it’s a firm favourite! We just have to negotiate sitting down together for the meal first, then straight to the film. Back to the daily report, I must get this finished and check the activity report for tomorrow, record what we spent today and check their medication is ready before bedtime.

Around 9.15pm

We encourage them to use the bathroom, clean their teeth and get ready for bed. It’s been a busy day so they’re tired, so am I. I hope we all get some sleep tonight, sometimes we don’t.

Around 9.30pm

I write out a thorough hand-over as my 4 days and nights on shift finish tomorrow morning.

I’m shattered after today then tidying up and getting ready for tomorrow.

My head hits the pillow with a thought I’ll never forget; that surprise thank you and chocolate bar.

What our people say…

I spent a number of years in the police force tackling many different issues and situations. I worked in a number of different regions of the UK and saw so many younger people struggling with keeping their life on track.

It was clear to see that so many genuinely needed the help and support of various agencies and local authority departments but, as we all know, all services are so stretched. Everyone does the very best but more help is needed.

Having thought about it long and hard I took the decision to leave the force and move into the care sector as I wanted to help make a real difference to young people’s lives.

It was a leap of faith which took a fair amount of adjusting to but it’s been well worth it. I’m still part of a team but I get to mentor, guide and support people who really need our help. Some days can be really tough but the reward of seeing the difference we make and the young people develop in incredible.

I’ve been offered the chance to study my level 5 diploma in leadership and management, which I’ve taken up, so this means I’m now working towards a leadership role

PCG Support Worker, 2023