Theatre Group Inspires Youngsters to Consider a Career in Caring

The Care Ambassadors theatre group, a group dedicated to educating people about working in social care, entertained delegates at the Skills for Care West Midlands conference last Tuesday (July 4th) at the Hilton Hotel in Coventry. The conference, called ‘Making a Difference’, was for employers and staff from social care organisations, those interested in a career in social care, training and education providers, and people who use social care services. It provided an update on the work Skills for Care does to improve care services through the development of the workforce.

Members of the Care Ambassadors Theatre group, including care workers and people who use care services, used a collection of stories about their own experiences, plus poems they had written themselves, to illustrate positive and negative images of social care.  The group aims to encourage young people to a career in social care by demonstrating what a huge impact good care provision can make on individual’s lives.  It also enables people who have used care services in the past to give something back to their community by becoming a Care Ambassador.

Shirley Brennan from Staffordshire Social Services Workforce Partnership established the Care Ambassadors theatre group in the West Midlands last November.  She said: “The performance was very moving and was designed to make people think about who has the right to decide how care services should be.  Everyone’s needs are very different and so our show demonstrated the range of opportunities available to people who choose a career in social care.”

The Care Ambassadors theatre group is one of several established around the country.  As well as performing at events, they tour schools within the Staffordshire region to give school pupils a taste of what involved in a social care career.  Last year it performed for over 1000 young people in the region, and will be entertaining and educating many more in the future.

In addition to the theatre performance, delegates took part in lively round table discussions and heard speeches from several high profile speakers from the social care field including the national CEO of Skills for Care, Andrea Rowe.

For more information on the Care Ambassadors visit www.careambassadors.info/