Meet Charlotte

Charlotte was a lifeguard, then a swimming teacher, then a teaching assistant. But she wanted to make a bigger difference to the lives of the children, so transferred her skills to a career in residential childcare.

How did you start working in children’s homes?

I started working in children’s home last year, October to be specific.  The reason I started that was because I was a lifeguard and then I went to swim teach, and I really enjoyed teaching and working with children. I then went to college and funded myself to do my Teaching Assistant qualification, and worked as a teaching assistant within an autistic school for two and a half years, and then felt that I really wanted to do more to help children without the confinements of working within a school, and really helping children and making a difference in their lives.

What does a day in a home for you look like?

A normal day within the children’s home – I wouldn’t say there is a normal day. In all honesty, I think every day’s different. That’s the beauty of the job. You don’t have a chance to sit and get bored. You’re not at an office desk typing up. All the time you’re there, you’re playing with the children in the garden, you’re taking them out on day trips, you’re sitting round the dinner table eating dinner, but the children wake up differently every morning so there is no such thing as a normal day. It’s just every day is a nice, happy day, as opposed to normal.

Eat together as a normal house. We will sit down at the dining table, that’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes as a normal family they can breakfast in the living room, watching TV in the morning. So basically it’s just like being a family. You’re being paid to be a family.

What do you think the children and young people need that children’s homes provide?

Just to be able to learn to trust adults again and to know that not every person in the world is going to hurt them, and that they can have a better life than the one they’ve maybe thought they were going to have, or were living in, and just knowing that they’ve got care and love around them and can be what they want to be when they’re older.

They definitely have trouble with trust, and completely understandable. These children have come from a place where all they’ve known is neglect or abuse, and that’s from adults potentially, even other children. So they’re coming into a home that they’ve been told is safe, but they don’t know that’s safe until we prove to them that it’s safe and that they’re in a safe environment and they can trust those around them that they will do that.

It does take time but you do it on their time not your time. So you give the time that they need, so that they can fit in, they can find themselves and start to secure in their own way. Once you get that, then you can start working out how you can best help them and move forward with their trauma that they’ve experienced.       

Trauma can be a big thing for the children and young people we work with. I think more than they realise. I think it potentially dominates quite a large part of their young lives . That’s why sometimes you get the challenges, it comes out and they don’t necessarily know why. Sometimes they were young and they don’t even really remember something that may have happened to them. Their memories have faded because that’s the brain’s way of protecting them. Trauma really can be a massive part, and that’s something we really work on so that these children can have a much brighter future ahead of them.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

The most rewarding thing for me working in the children’s home is just seeing the difference. The small differences that you make within these children’s lives on a day to day basis, and that can be as small as they’ve smiled for the first time because you’ve told them a joke. Or they’ve come up to you and they’ve taken your hand and want to walk round the garden with you. Or they’re sitting playing a game nicely and everyone’s just being what a normal family would look like, so that they can experience that and feel safe when they’ve potentially never felt safe before. That’s very rewarding to know that they’re going to have better lives because of the work we’re doing.

What’s the most challenging part of your job?

The most challenging thing within working in a children’s home is, for me, when a child becomes dysregulated or upset and you don’t immediately necessarily know how to help them. They can’t then communicate what they need or would like because they’ve gone past they’re upset. So it’s trying to get through to them by building that trust and getting them back to a regulated, calm state to then be able to help them. That can be quite challenging when you’re not quite sure what’s left – you’ve offered them things but what else do I do now? But you overcome that by getting to know the children that you’re working with.

From working over here over time, my relationships with the children have improved greatly. I have done overtime and helped out the team when in need and the children have now come to see me, I believe, as a reliable person, someone they can trust – because I’m here regularly and that has shown in how they respond. It has become easier because they now trust me, so they know I’m going to keep them safe and do what I need to do to help keep them safe and get them past where they’re at.

I feel like I’m part of a family as opposed to part of a team because you’re looking after kids. So it’s a completely different job to your normal office job. You’re all here because you care and it’s more than a team, it’s like a work family. You’re all here to help those children have those better lives.

What’s been the most memorable experience so far?

My most memorable point so far working in a children’s home would be when I became what’s known here, but known differently across others, is a link worker. So a shopper for a child, which allowed me to then spend quality one to one time with that child and go out and buy their clothes, take them for lunch and help them with exactly what they need. I’m the person that will buy their clothes, I’ll buy their birthday presents. I’ll go out and get Christmas presents for them. That’s a really nice feeling to know that I can do that for a child, and make them smile on Christmas morning when they open up that present and see that they’ve got what they’ve asked for.

What are you career plans for the future?

My career I see in children’s homes. I’ve recently just started shadowing as a Shift Leader, and also I’m already progressing up to the next role. In terms of where I want to go there’s lots of opportunity, so a Duty Manager, Registered Manager. I do want to be successful in this industry and stay within this industry. For now I’m happy as a Shift Leader and learning all of that, but there’s definitely lots of opportunity for progression if you want to go higher, or look to move forward.

We have regular meetings once a week where training is provided during those meetings. You can go to managers and ask for extra training. We have an e-learning portal where we can go and do training on there. Training, as far as I’ve experienced, I’ve had all the training that I need, and more training would be available if I wanted it.

What would you like to say to someone watching this who is thinking about working in a children’s home?

For those thinking of working in a children’s home, I’d say try it. Absolutely give it a go. It is a job where you’ll absolutely love it or you may think, “Okay, this isn’t quite for me,” but still walk away loving it. It is the most rewarding job I’ve ever had and I’ve had a lot if you look at my CV. I’ve now found something that’s amazing and so rewarding. Like I say, every day’s different so you don’t have the chance to get bored. You’re basically being paid to be a family, and spend day trips with kids at the beach, crabbing. What more can you ask for in a job?