As previously mentioned, in September I promoted to become a Personal Tutor to two children that I work with. It is effectively a key worker role and it was a very tough job to be able to do. In December the opportunity came up to interview for a promotion to Deputy Care Manager (DCM) within the same home that I work in.
I have always been someone to push myself and want to achieve everything right here, right now. I like to feel like I am moving my way up and making progress in everything that I do. From this, you would think that I immediately thought I should interview for DCM without really thinking about it, but in reality, I thought for a really long time about this as to whether it was the promotion that I wanted to take right now. There are a number of changes when you become DCM and as such I had to think whether it was the right move for me.
As a DCM you run the house while working in the house, you are responsible for the decisions that happen in terms of the young people while on your shift, you also have the responsibility for keeping the children and your team safe every time you are in the house. On top of this, you become a part of the management team and as such you are expected to review documentation when needed as well as provide PD/PS sessions for other members of the team. Finally you have two children that you are responsible for reviewing the casework of, doing casework monitoring and supporting the Personal Tutor in their role. It’s a big step up with a lot of responsibility, so it was a big consideration to make, there are a few negatives that I needed to think about.
- I would lose my key children that I had as a Personal Tutor. This might sound really sentimental but I had formed really good relationships with my key children and it was a bit gutting to think that I wouldn’t be their Personal tutor anymore.
- I wouldn’t be able to go off site as easily any more. As a DCM you generally have to stay on site to ensure that you are a main port of call for people who have taken young people on off site activities. This is a bit gutting but can be mitigated by a couple of things. Firstly, if I were to have a Team Leader on my team then I would be able to go off site and the Team Leader would be able to run the house in my absence. Secondly, I could always pick up cover on the Care Team and then I wouldn’t be a DCM so there wouldn’t be an issue! I am always picking up cover so I am more than likely to be able to do this.
- It is a lot more responsibility and I have only been with the company for about a year and a half. This felt life a big step up!
While there were some negatives I talked it through with Jordan, my Mum and Dad and a few close friends and decided to go for it. At least if I went for the interview then I would be getting interview experience and learning about what I needed to do for next time. And it was decided, I would go to interview just for the experience.
I went for the interview and it was quite a stressful day really. The interview in itself was alright, your average interview questions but there is something really weird about interviewing with people that you know and have worked with for a year and a half but it’s something that I have got used to. I didn’t think that I had interviewed that well in comparison to my other interviews. I did not feel confident in my answers but I wasn’t too worried as it was all for experience at the end of the day!
The hardest part of the day was the reaction of the young people when they realised that I was going for DCM, especially my key child. She was not happy as she felt as though I had abandoned her, she called me all the names under the sun, said that I had ruined her life and in general was really upset. While I should earn not to be affected by this, it really did and I was quite upset for the shift. BUT! We made it through and after a lot of rather unpleasant behaviours, my key child sorted it out and we had a good conversation about it during their settle time and we were back to normal (as normal as can be anyway…).
I returned to work in the house after my interview but was called over to my Registered Manager’s office later in the day to give me the decision on how everything had gone. At this point they told me that I had been successful and would be becoming a DCM! I was quite amazed as I really was not sure how I had interviewed and I didn’t feel at all confident. They were impressed with my interview and I was glad to hear it.
And so in January I began my new role as Deputy Care Manager. Three months of training first and then I am a fully fledged DCM with a team around me. It’s a big step and a lot of responsibility. I’m really nervous about it but I have a really good team around me!