Staff Reflections
Here, you will find personal reflections from Amber Family Support Workers and Key Workers who have direct contact with parents and their children. They write about their personal feelings working with Amber Family, their work-life balance, how they interact with our resident families and how they’ve integrated into their roles with no prior experience. Amber Family’s staff are all positive role models and are recruited for their dedication to supporting families; we feel this is evident when reading their unique reflections below.
Reflections from our Family Support Workers
By Tracey S.
Amber Family came into my life over two years ago thanks to a friend who was already working for them. She told me they were looking for staff and how much she loved her job. I applied for a role as a nighttime Support Worker, and even though I had never done anything like this before, I was offered some shadow shifts to see if I liked it and if it suited me. Well, I loved it. Amber has given me all the training and support I need to do my job. They have given me the flexibility to still do school runs with my children, attend school plays, be about half terms/ holidays, and have flexibility in my shifts to suit my family. For the first time, I feel like I have a really good work/ life balance, and it comes with the most rewarding role and a great team of colleagues.
As a night shift Support Worker at Amber Lodge, it is my responsibility to ensure the safety of the families and babies within the setting. There are many aspects to my role as a nighttime Support Worker. One of them is supporting the parents in meeting their baby’s physical and emotional needs, helping them with tasks such as bottle making, feeding, winding, sterilising, bathing, and age-appropriate stimulation.
Another part of my role is to build a good professional relationship with the parents, to help them build trust with us as professionals to where they feel comfortable enough to accept support from us and work with us to achieve the best outcome possible for the babies. To help achieve this, we do activities in the setting such as crafts, movie nights, games nights, and even just sitting around the dining table with a cup of tea and chatting about their week or their day. Many of our parents may have a mistrust of professionals and don’t always believe that they are there to help but more to catch them out.
We work hard at Amber Family to ensure that our parents feel supported. We encourage them to work openly and honestly with us to enable us to offer them the best support. We do regular check-ins with the parents, offer courses to support their parenting roles, and offer counselling if needed. Other programmes are available, too, if required.
During my shift, 19:00 - 07:30 I complete half-hour checks on all the babies in the setting, ensuring they are safe, and their needs are being sufficiently met. I also record information about each family on our specially designed computer system to provide evidence of the events of the night. This can include basic care of the baby, how the parent/s have presented, if any medication has been taken and if there have been any issues throughout the night. This information is then available for staff to come in and read in the morning or when they are next on shift so that they can be up to date with each family. It also helps the Key Workers to build their weekly meetings to discuss what is going well and areas that can be focused on.
If any issues arise during my shift, such as a parent co-sleeping with their baby, we will email our house manager, safeguarding officer, and the family’s Key Worker so that support can be offered to the family, as this is considered a danger to the baby if it were to continue. Even though I work alone at night, I always have help at hand as I can ring the other settings and speak to the staff there. So, if I am ever unsure about something, someone is always at the other end of the phone. We also have an on-call system, so a manager is always available to us if required.
I find my job very rewarding. When working with the families in our setting, you get to watch the parents grow in confidence, see them build bonds with their babies, and create memories that will last forever.
By doing a simple task such as showing them how to bathe their baby, encouraging them to read to their baby, or lying in the sensory area with them, they are interacting with the baby and building those important bonds. All those little interactions add up.
The parents may not have believed they could safely bathe their baby and then even enjoy doing it and watching the baby kick and splash in the water. Staff being there to support and encourage them in their role as parents can give them confidence and the ability to do it themselves.
That’s what our role is all about: giving parents the tools to complete tasks themselves, helping build their confidence as parents, and allowing them to deal with situations so they can go on and live independently, continue to grow and develop, and hopefully thrive as a family.
By Claire D.
I started my journey at Amber in November 2022, having worked for 16 years as a baby room leader in a nursery. I loved this job, but I knew it was time for a change. I had no CV or computer knowledge, but I knew I wanted to continue helping children.
From my application form until now, my Amber Family journey has been unbelievable. I have never felt more valued and appreciated in a job. I am thoroughly enjoying being part of a team that is all amazing, helpful, and patient, and this has made the transition from the nursery into a residential family centre so much easier.
The company invests in training so that you can learn along the way from day one. Support through ‘Little chats/Supervision’ with your house manager is a fabulous way to have input, ask questions, and learn about your progress.
The best part of the job is watching a family arrive at Amber, often unsure of what awaits them, feeling vulnerable and overwhelmed, putting their trust in you to support them and guide them….. building up a supportive, professional relationship with them, and then seeing them go home together, equipped with skills and strategies that you and your colleagues have armed them with.
At Amber Family, every day is different! From walks to Dobbies to messy play and creating memory books. It is the greatest pleasure supporting families and helping them create memories that they’ll take with them when they leave Amber. Supporting parents in caring for their children and watching them grow in confidence is the most rewarding part of the job. Sometimes, you will encounter situations that you’ve never been in before, and there may be conflict between families, or it may be that someone has received bad news; it may be that you provide a listening ear for someone, and that is all they need.
Joining the Amber Family Team has been the best decision I have made, and I look forward to continuing my journey with them.
Reflections from our Key Workers
By Bethany A.
I’ve been Key Working for Amber Family since 2020 and before that, I was a Support Worker and found this time to be invaluable as I was able to observe my colleagues at Key Working Families and gain knowledge and experience about how I wanted to support parents when they arrived for an assessment. There is no guide for being a Key Worker as each family requires their own individual support, and this can only be fully understood once we have built up a good rapport and trust with the parent and/or parents.
I find it easiest to do this within the first week of placement by being on hand to offer them support and understanding. Having some open conversations about what brought them to Amber Family and what their thoughts and feelings are around this is an important part of the process, as we all have our own truth. I am also conscious of providing parents with the information that I have been provided by the Local Authority as part of their referral to show that we do not hold any information back; this piece of work is intended to lay the foundation of an honest and open relationship. Conversations are often easier to conduct when we are outside the setting, when we are on walks, or when we are shopping, as parents tend to relax more and feel more comfortable opening up about their past.
Trust is key to being able to work openly and honestly with all our families, which I believe is one of the core values of being a Key Worker; I also feel it’s important to support parents to develop their own independence and confidence in their abilities as a parent. Being honest isn’t always easy, and I’ve had to become comfortable with having uncomfortable conversations, but this is all said with care and with the hope that the parent can take this guidance on board to ensure there is a positive outcome for them and their child.
Honesty can look different each day; it may be quiet conversations along the way to keep the family on track, or at times, this can be addressing some serious concerns. When dealing with challenging behaviour, sometimes honesty is the only tool left in our kit; none of us are perfect, and the parent may make some mistakes during their time in placement. It’s our role to support them in acknowledging these mistakes, learning from them, and moving on.
I believe during these challenging encounters it is important to see past the destructive behaviour and try to think about what emotions are behind this behaviour; I’ve found this is often ‘fear’. Being in placement is intense, and our parents are constantly worried about the very real risk of losing their children; this can quickly build up and come out through other acts such as shouting, aggressive behaviour, and lack of engagement; we have dealt with it all. My priority is to ensure the child is safe and allow the parent time to vent in whatever way is best for them, either talking to me or a friend, going for a walk, time alone etc. Once the parent is ready to talk, we honestly address the issues again. It may not go this smoothly, but I know here at Amber Family, we work best as a team and deal with the unknown daily.
By Nicki C.
My name is Nicki, and I am a Trainee Key Worker at Amber Lodge. I have been a Trainee Key Worker since March 2023, before that I was a Support Worker for a year.
I currently have two families, which both consist of a mum, dad and baby. When the families arrive, it is my responsibility to ensure they have an induction and sign all the consent forms and placement contracts. I also have to arrange and attend planning meetings to establish who the families can have come to visit, who may pose a risk and any important information needed about the family.
During their first 48 hours of placement, families have a well-being check-in. The first one is in-depth with lots of information about the parent’s physical and mental well-being. The check-ins continue each week, albeit less in-depth and more focused on the present, during their weekly summary report meetings.
I conduct their weekly meetings which are a mandatory requirement for all parents residing at Amber Family. The weekly meetings are used to talk about observations made that week and how best we can support the parents during their time at Amber Family.
Being a Key Worker means you get to work closely with your families so any day-to-day concerns can be addressed as and when, so they are usually dealt with by the time the meeting occurs. Sometimes, difficult conversations require a lot of patience and understanding as parents are often under a lot of stress while trying to parent their children and complete an assessment; it can often cause a parent to feel very burnt out. However, this helps to strengthen the relationship between a Key Worker and the parents.
The weekly summary report meetings are sent to the family’s Social Worker, and parents receive a copy of the report for their records. Their progress each week whilst in placement is displayed in an easy-to-understand format of green (assessment area achieved), amber (assessment area ongoing) and red (a safeguarding concern has been recorded). All weekly scores are then used to compile a midpoint report for each family in week 6 and then the final report in week 12. Parents are encouraged to provide feedback throughout the assessment process, and their views are recorded and taken into consideration.
Placement Plans for each family are updated as and when required to reflect the family’s day-to-day lives and any changes made to family visits or the baby’s needs.
All in all, life as a Key Worker is busy! But it can be very rewarding when you work so closely with a family, as you get to see the improvements made and the positive impact you have on their time at Amber.
By Lee S.
I have just started my journey (May 2023) as a Key Worker at Amber Family. I have never been in a role like this before, but I am enjoying every aspect of my new career. There are so many rewarding things I could talk about that I take from this role. I would have to say that the most rewarding part of this for me is being part of someone else’s journey. I love the idea of being able to listen and speak to families we have in the Amber settings, to empathise with them and get a good understanding of who they are and what has brought them to us. I love being able to pass on knowledge and experience and build the parents and children into families that can go back into the community and thrive.
Something else I find rewarding within Amber Family is the support of the staff in making the assessment process your own and how you are encouraged to tailor the assessment to fit the individual family’s needs.
I feel that as a Key Worker, there are so many challenges that you can encounter on a day-to-day basis, but that is what makes the role so exciting – no two days are the same. The most challenging thing I have encountered is when the outcome of the assessment is not positive for the family. Still, ultimately, the assessment is always positive for the child, and that’s the priority. Sometimes, in this role, you will see people who love their Children but just cannot do what is right to safeguard them; this can present in many ways. They may not understand fully what a child needs or may just not be able to identify risk. Some people may not be able to put their child first, and as a dad, that is something that I find challenging.
The families we encounter are all different and have had different starts to their parenting journeys. The challenge that will always be there, no matter the family, is trust, and from my experience so far, all new families that come to us have a guard up. The families may have had negative experiences in the past with different authority figures, and they carry this with them at the start of their Amber journey.
It is our goal to be able to get past this as soon as possible so we can them on their way to a positive assessment. At Amber Family we have an amazing team of people that have different strengths, I feel that we all complement each other when working with families and getting them to engage with us throughout the assessment. I feel the team at Amber Family is good at getting stuck in and offering advice when needed; the more experienced members of the team are always there to help with suggestions on how to get past some of the stumbling blocks that can come up when working with the families in the settings.
