Clare began her career around twenty years ago as an administrator for a support company in Malvern. She was based in someone’s home and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, she was made redundant but was asked back to the same home to try being a support worker.
After a few years, she shifted her career into fundraising events for a charity and stayed there for 16 years. However, the start of the Coronavirus pandemic put a pause to any events, and she was furloughed at home for nine months.
Things didn’t feel the same for Clare when she returned which led to her looking for a career change.
It was more about recouping money that they’ve lost, so I felt a bit like a debt collector and that wasn’t me. I was all into care, you know, caring.
It was a friend of hers that started her journey to return to support work as an agency worker. This eventually led to her applying to be a full-time support worker at Aspire Living. In three years since she returned to support work, she has progressed from Support Worker all the way through to her current role as a Support Manager.
Clare admits the role is not without its challenges but says the possibility of improving someone’s life gets her through it. A specific person she spoke about was Ben, who’s transformation we’ve spoke about in a previous blog. Clare helped Ben to get the correct diagnosis for his medical problems after being previously misdiagnosed with an Acquired Brain Injury.
It took a long time, but we are where we are because someone cared, and somebody asked and kept asking the right questions.
There’s always something I think can be done to improve someone’s life. I’ll always be looking for the thing. Someone says no [and] I’m like, why?
When we asked her what advice she would give to someone wanting to start in social care, she said:
When you come up against something and they say no, question it. If you think it’s right, follow your heart and keep pushing.
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