By Vicky Cox, November 2024.

I began my Amber journey as a Support Worker, working mainly night shifts whilst navigating life with three young children and a husband who worked away. This suited our family at the time. However, it has always been my intention to work more day shifts to get a better understanding of what goes on at Amber Family day-to-day. Two years later, the children were a little bit older, and my husband’s work patterns had changed. I had really enjoyed the day shifts I was doing, so I decided to apply for the role of Key Worker when it was advertised again.

This wasn’t an easy decision for me. I was worried about working set shifts and making these fit in with all the things we had going on at home. I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to work full time as my husband was still working away three days a week. My biggest concern when considering whether I could do this role part-time was that I wouldn’t be there “enough” for my assigned family. I worried that trying to fit in meetings, writing reports and completing direct work during a three-day week would be tough, and I would end up missing important meetings, appointments and emails. After a chat with the HR Manager during which I laid out all of my concerns, she reassured me that should I be successful in my application, Amber would work with me to ensure my hours suited both myself and any family I would work with. And so apply I did! I received an email to tell me I had been offered the job, and on the 10th of June, I commenced my new role at Amber Grove.

I began my journey as a Key Worker with a parent who had already been in placement at Grove for four weeks. I spent my first week getting to know everything about the family, and the Registered Manager at Amber Grove supported me in generating and scoring my first summary report meeting, which is all generated via Impact Assessments. As part of the training plan, the Registered Manager delivered the first couple of meetings before I was asked to take the lead, initially supervised by either the Registered Manager or an Assessor. Then, I was able to complete my meetings solo.

A qualified Social Worker and Amber Family Assessor supervised my first meeting; this was only a short meeting as we only covered just one of the assessment areas. I was nervous, and I was sure I wouldn’t ask the right questions or pick up on the things that the Assessor would be looking for. I now know that this is absolutely normal, and as with a lot of things here at Amber, “You don’t know it ‘till you know it!”. As it turns out, it went really well, and the Assessor commented that I displayed a good amount of professional curiosity, allowing us to delve deeper into certain areas to ascertain the parent’s understanding of the concerns raised by the Local Authority.

The Summary Report meeting with the Amber Grove Registered Manager was also nerve wracking as it was a full meeting, however I got through this and took on board all the feedback that was provided to me. I truly believe that my two years as a Support Worker aided my ability to talk to the parent during these meetings. My Support Worker role at Amber has taught me to listen instead of respond, and I was able to take that into my work as a Key Worker. The role of a Support Worker is to support parents and families during their time at Amber Family by providing emotional and practical support and guidance to assist them in caring for their child. I am so grateful for everything that I learned during my time working in that Support Worker role, as I am able to combine elements of both roles into my new journey as a Key Worker.

Being a parent is tough, and being under constant assessment is not something that I have first-hand knowledge of, but being able to approach work with new families with understanding and empathy is so important. We are here to support our families to develop their parenting styles and navigate their assessment to the best of their ability. Being able to recognise and adapt to the parents needs and learning styles is key, being able to deliver meetings and direct work in a way that informs and empowers is something that I always keep in mind when working with our families.

Throughout my first months as a Key Worker, I had registered managers, assessors, and other colleagues on hand to help and support me at every turn. The training plan is clear and has allowed me to tick off tasks as and when I have completed them. I have always had my Key Worker colleagues available to me, as well as my fellow “Grovers,” to lean on when needed. I am so glad I applied for this role; I am enjoying the new challenges and responsibilities and am looking forward to moving over to another Amber setting in the near future and taking my new skills and confidence with me.