Bank support professional

Kev's story

Career journey

Kev has spent his career working in a range of professions including transport, legal investigation and classic car restoration. He now works as a bank support worker for Home Field Trust, a supported living service in Market Harborough. Kev chose this type of role in order to fit his new career into his 'active retirement' plan.

Kev was inspired to work in care as a result of his experience of supporting his son, who has autism, and his step-daughter, who has a learning disability. These personal experience gave him an insight into the type of work available in the care sector and the rewarding nature of this type of role. As well as his unpaid care experience, Kev has transferred the skills that he learnt through his previous careers into his support role. For example, he now drives a minibus to transport people to and from activity sessions.

Day in the life of a support worker

Kev works in multi-resident households that are usually home to 2 or 3 residents. Each household has a support worker on duty to support residents to manage their home and live as independently as possible. Kev works with a range of different households, but likes to work consistently with groups with whom he has built strong relationships.

As a bank worker, Kev has the flexibility to create his own shift pattern. His usual working pattern is to do a 24 hour shift (made up of an evening, 'sleep-in', morning and day shift), once or twice a week, depending on his commitment outside of work.

When he arrives to start a shift, Kev begins by reading through handover notes and the residents' communication books. This process is essential to ensure that Kev is aware of any problems that residents may be facing, as well as any special activities that they have planned, such as birthday celebrations.

Kev's time is then spent supporting people with activities such as planning and preparing food, budgeting, shopping and enjoying hobbies. Kev also supports residents with personal care, such as bathing and grooming, and managing their medication.

Kev's role is to empower people to make decisions about what activities they would like to do, and then to support them to be as independent as possible. Many of the people that Kev supports attend day services. Other people prefer to have 1:1 support sessions. Kev supports these individuals to do a range of activities, such as community visits to the shops or cafes, household chores or cooking sessions.

At the heart of Kev's role is companionship and relationship-building. Kev likes to use his life experiences, such as restoring cars, to spark conversations and establish rapport with the people that he works with.

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