A visit to The Old Vicarage with one of our Locality Managers, Yasmine England
About Yasmine
Yasmine’s career began in childcare. Wanting a change from working with children, her mum, who worked in the care industry, highlighted that her skills were transferable and that she could make a great support worker.
Despite being a bit of a self-confessed workaholic, Yasmine was reluctant to give up the long Christmas holiday break that she got in the nursery but decided to give it a go and quickly fell in love with supporting adults. Having been promoted roughly once a year since she joined the industry, Yasmine is now a Locality Manager of two homes. She is proof that there’s the opportunity to move up quickly if that’s what you want to do.
About The Old Vicarage
“It’s a wonderful building with huge character, and has been home to Mervyn, Jeremy, Karen and Peter for over 20 years. We have a nice garden and we’re very lucky with the location which has easy access to the local amenities and stunning views overlooking the church. A volunteer picks Peter up for Church every Sunday. It’s a really meaningful experience for him and the atmosphere and acoustics are brilliant for his sensory awareness.
We build links and relationships with people in the local community; often going to the pub next door and simply being one of ‘the locals’. We shop at the village butchers to get to know people and do our bit to support local businesses and the community. We also organise parties raising money for charity and have house parties with our friends/neighbours.
We have fun days away from Cannington and meet up with family members. I’m a real advocate for families being involved as much as possible and working together to find ways in which we can enable that more regularly.”
What skills do you need to work in learning disability services?
“You have to genuinely care and want to make a difference, it’s more about you and your values than qualifications – I didn’t get mine until recently. You need to promote and support independence – this might be with food, holidays and breaks away, or finding the best time when it’s quiet to pop to Tesco or go swimming.
You should be prepared to question things and be curious – do I always need to cut somebody’s food up with them or can they be supported to be independent to do any part themselves? The possibilities of activities, or hobbies are as endless as they are for me and you (or the brave people that actually enjoy things like rock climbing or canoeing!)
A few years ago someone I supported in Castle Cary went on holiday and did rock climbing, which many people didn’t think would be possible due to his wheelchair and mobility needs – but we did it. We can make so many positive improvements to people’s lives and get them to do more for themselves by thinking a bit differently and being curious.
You also need to be honest – mistakes do happen and they need to be recorded and reported accordingly. I always like my team to take ownership, to help themselves more as well as the people they support. To keep up to date with their training and book themselves on courses.
The support continues to shine and colleagues should want to come and push it further forward with me.”
If you’re interested in finding out more about careers with Discovery, speak to your Manager about potential opportunities or visit www.discovery-uk.org/discovery-careers/