New To Care – This was my time to step up! I’ve never considered doing support work
By New To Care, , , , ,

Rosalind Watt is an operations coordinator at Beyond Limits in Dumfries and Galloway, a small organisation providing support to people with learning disabilities, mental health issues and other support needs. She tells us her story about stepping out of her usual day job into a support role.

“I joined a very small care provider, Beyond Limits in October 2018 as an admin assistant. My job has developed since then and I’ve recently been promoted to operations coordinator.

“When the pandemic struck there was a huge amount of concern about any of our staff team catching the virus. We are a very small team who work regularly to support the same person, so we realised that we really needed to employ at least one bank worker.

 

″This was my time to step up! I’ve never considered doing support work.

 

“This was my time to step up! I’ve never considered doing support work. I’ve always been a systems and procedures person, but I took on the challenge and did all my induction training, got my PVG upgraded and registered with the SSSC.

“I’ve done shadow shifts and my first shift on my own. I thoroughly enjoyed it, which was not what I expected. The whole team have dug deep and continued to go out to work in extremely worrying times so there was no reason for me not to do likewise.

“I’ve learned a lot. Not only about what the rest of the team do on a daily basis but it’s giving me a good all-round view of how the organisation works, not just from an office worker’s perspective. I’ll continue to be a bank worker after this is all over and I’m really pleased to be adding a new string to my bow which I would never have done in normal circumstances.”

You can see Rosalind’s story along with many others on the SSSC’s website. They are sharing ‘Inspiring Care Stories’ to celebrate the values and commitment of Scotland’s social service workforce during COVID-19. You and your colleagues are encouraged to share your stories too. Here are the various ways you can do this:

We look forward to seeing your stories of your #lifechangingwork during COVID-19 and your #InspiringCareStories and #SSSCregistered photos on social media.

Picture (c) Beyond Limits.