Meet Jeanette, who works as a Complex Care Coordinator, within our coordination team.
What is a coordination team?
Our team of coordinators are responsible for the day-to-day service provision to our clients by producing detailed work rotas for the field staff, and acting as their point of contact. We couldn’t do what we do without them!
“I have been working at HASCS as a Care Coordinator since the end of September 2023. I started work at the very young age of 14 when I secured a Saturday job at my mum’s hairdressers, I never wanted to be a hairdresser, in fact I told my careers advisor at secondary school that I was going to work in a wildlife park or zoo as a park ranger! She wasn’t impressed and handed me a couple of leaflets with my job options, I can’t recall what the jobs were but they were of little interest to me at such a young age.
I accepted the Saturday job purely to earn a bit of pocket money and soon began working through the school holidays as I enjoyed the job more and more. When I left school after sitting my O’levels I started a five-year apprenticeship to become a qualified hairdresser. I enjoyed college and stayed behind for two hours every Monday to learn barbering which was very different to ladies hairdressing. Eventually I became a fully qualified Hairdresser and Barber and continued for another ten years until I started a family.
Over the next five years I had two beautiful daughters and worked part time in between at St Marys Hospital as a domestic assistant alongside caring for my girls. I loved working at the hospital but was feeling the need to face a new challenge and learn new skills, I have always been a keen learner and strive to broaden my knowledge whenever possible, reading is a big passion of mine and as a consequence have a headful of obscure trivia!
My youngest daughter had started pre-school, and I commenced the role of Treasurer on a voluntary basis, I have always had a passion for maths and problem solving so I was happy to take up the role. Whilst spending time there I became interested in Early Years Education and eventually started helping more and more in the classroom. After a few months a job opportunity arose as one of the practitioners was retiring and I was asked to join the team full time. I eagerly accepted the role and found a new passion in nurturing and teaching the little ones to become confident and independent learners ready to start big school when the time came. Over the next couple of years I completed my NVQ Level 2 and 3 in Early Years Education and completed other training pertinent to the job role.
As I progressed, I realised that I seemed drawn to the children who seemed to struggle with their development and were in danger of falling behind or getting a bit “lost” among all the box ticking and paperwork that dominates education these days. Eventually I became the SENCO and felt that I had really found my calling. I had the opportunity to gain specialised training to enable me to fulfil my job role and worked with some very knowledgeable and compassionate professionals over the next few years. Watching those children with Special Educational Needs progress and gain so much confidence was so rewarding and supporting the families gave my job such value, it was very hard work but more than worth it! I enjoyed the job for many years until I faced redundancy due to the Early Years budget being cut to the core over successive years, this also gave me a passion for politics but that’s another story!
I left with a very heavy heart but quickly secured a job as a Support Worker at Lane End House in Emsworth which was a Supported Living Service for adults with Learning Disabilities, Autism and Downs Syndrome. I thought I could transfer my skills to supporting adults and soon found a new vocation. Within 3 months I had been promoted to Senior and grew into a new type of role gaining my NVQ 3 in Adult Social Care and becoming part of the Management team. My role was varied, hectic and no two days were the same! I became interested in Mentoring and eventually had the role of helping the support workers through their Care Certificates and NVQ’s as needed, the teacher in me is never far away! I felt proud to be an integral part of helping a new service grow into such a happy and supportive environment which enabled the residents to enjoy lives which had worth and value, it was an amazing job. After 6 years I felt I needed a new challenge and realised there was no progression to be had within the service so began looking for a new job opportunity. I wanted a Monday to Friday 9 to 5 job as I had grown weary of shift work so began a job as a Care Coordinator. It was hard leaving Lane End, but I felt I had no more to give to the role and so began a very different sort of work as a Care Coordinator for another care agency.
The hardest part of the job was learning computer skills, mine were sadly lacking! I picked it up far quicker than I thought I would and soon learned all the skills necessary for the role, however after 10 months all the office staff were laid off due to lack of business and that is how I found myself at HASCS. From the minute I walked through the door into the office for my interview I felt a very warm welcome and a happy working environment and knew if successful I would enjoy working for HASCS.
On my first day all the staff were so polite, friendly, and helpful, I settled in very quickly and set about learning the job. HASCS is a company with one objective, making the lives of the people we care for happy, safe, and feeling supported 24/7. It has opened my eyes to the complex care needed and the HCA’s and Nurses, along with the Nurse Managers, provide this with dedication and compassion. The Coordination Team are an integral part of providing this care and work very well together, particularly when supporting new members of the team, they have a fantastic knowledge of the service provided and are always on hand to assist with queries and concerns. I am extremely happy to be part of such a great organisation and learn something new every day, I look forward to the future with HASCS!”
Interested in learning more about our team? Visit our ‘About Us’ page to meet the entire HASCS team.
HASCS is a leading provider of complex care services, committed to delivering compassionate, high-quality care to individuals and communities in need.
