One Year as an SQD – A High Impact Month

Posted 18/10/2024

Sam, Service Quality Director for Thera South West, fills us in on her adventures at a Fun Day, as well as important new tasks she has undertaken.

One of the first big things that happened to me this month is that my new Executive Assistant(EA) is now in post. She has been a huge help already helping me with various jobs and we’re becoming a really good team!

Sam Avery, the Service Quality Director, attended a fun day at the Fleet Air Arm Museum. Sam is dressed as a sunflower with a yellow and green jumper with sunflowers on and a sunflower headband.
Sam at the Fleet Air Arm Museum fun day dressed as a sunflower.

In terms of what I’ve been up to this month, I was able to attend our Fun Day at the Fleet Air Arm Museum. I loved dressing up as a sunflower. I was able to meet new faces and talk with familiar ones when I was greeting people at the front desk. It carried on being a busy, but fulfilling day for me as I also oversaw the raffle and was able to dance. One of the people we support, Liam, was able to do a DJ set. It’s great to see him given the opportunity and it was great to dance with everyone. It made me wish I could bring so of my own instruments with me, but that maybe an idea for next time.

It was also amazing to see my old boss who came to the event too. She told me it was amazing to see my growth and that I had come leaps and bounds and that she was proud of me.

It gave me a sense of pride in myself, something I reflected when I was asked to give a speech at a recent Thera Leadership Event. I spoke about my success story, and it meant a lot to get positive feedback from different Executives and Managers. I’m proud of the work I do, my job has given me a purpose and I love the opportunity to give back when I can.

As a result, I’ve been able to do a huge range of work, all being different and unique experiences. I flexed my creativity designed a flyer for the benefits of owning A Blue Light Card and the availability of You at Work. I delivered a ‘Welcome to Thera’ alongside Estelle, these are essentially in teaching staff how Thera functions and why we work in the way we do. I’ve also been working alongside our Operational Assurance Team, it’s a new experience and I’ve been thankful for my EA being alongside me as we navigated this new job together. Estelle and one of the Operational Assurance Managers have also been great in helping me find my feet with the new responsibility.

Apart from all the new experiences, I have maintained doing some of my regular tasks. I assisted someone in a safeguarding issue and was able to come to a pleasing resolution for all involved. It was great to assist and help smooth things out. I have also been keeping my eyes open for any jobs fairs we can attend and keeping up with the board meetings and meeting our new chair.

Altogether, it has been a busy month, but I am loving my role here as Thera South West’s Service Quality Director and I love getting stuck into as many different jobs as I can.

Read more about Sam’s first year here