Team leader Review

My role as a team leader also involves being a support worker. From day to day it differs and equally it can differ from hour to hour some days. I work in an 18 bed supported living flat scheme for people with learning disabilities plus physical disabilities. We have some individuals who have 24/7 support and others who have smaller 1:1 packages. On a typical day I will support up to 8 people throughout the day and ensure that their needs are met, whether that means they need to go shopping or just want to have a relaxed day at home, we also help them clean, cook and generally remain safe within their home. We also help them with finances as well as their medication. Some people only require verbal prompts with both of these things, however others require full support, for example with their medication this means that we have to order the medication, store it safely, prepare it at the correct times and then administer it in line with our MAR charts and policies.

I believe that the programme is very well structured. I do feel that the off the job hours could do with a little bit of tweaking because I completed my level 2 when I first came into the team leader position, I feel that a lot of the work and learning that I did was used during level 2, so then when I needed off the job training for level 3 I did have as much as I needed to learn

I received a fair amount of support from my employer. There were times throughout the pandemic and general day to day where it has been a bit challenging to complete my assignments due to working longer hours and more days, but I was still given time thoughout my working weeks to get the coursework completed.

The amount of support that I received I feel has been great, there were times where I was struggling with my mental health and my trainer implemented some extra welfare checks on me to ensure that I was ok. I really appreciated this as she didn’t have to do that but it felt like she cared and was there for me.

I feel that this qualification helps me quite a lot with my role. It enables me to be able to completely MCA’s without needing additional support from my manager, it allows me to be able to use internal software that I wasn’t able to use before this. By doing the qualification it has also shown me that I do know my job really well and I also know more about policies and protocols than I had originally realised.

Yes

I would recommend lifeways to a friend because they provide support to individuals that without the support would not be able to live as independently as they do here. I would also recommend the company because they support their staff to better themselves and to create goals that will support both them and the people that we support.