Jayne | Faces of Futures

Jayne, Service Manager for Angus Peer Mental Health and Young People’s Services

Hi, I’m Jayne Fotheringham and I’m a service manager for Hillcrest Futures’ Angus Peer Mental Health services and Angus Young People’s services which includes Drug and Alcohol, and Early Intervention and Family Support services.

An overview of my career

I started with Hillcrest Futures, formerly known as Gowrie Care, when I was a student studying my HNC in social care. My dream was to become a social worker within children’s and families services. My placement with Hillcrest Futures was in a registered service in Brechin, supporting adults with learning disabilities, which at the time felt alien to me as I wanted to work with children. This quickly changed and I thoroughly enjoyed the care aspects, so after qualifying I returned as an assistant support worker in February 2012. From here I gained further knowledge and expertise within different services in Dundee – where I became a support worker and completed my SVQ Level 3.

Hillcrest enabled me to seek opportunities, not only within the role, but also externally. In doing so, I became a trainer in MAPA/safety interventions. I then had the opportunity to support and open a brand new service within Dundee as a senior support worker. The service supported young people to move into their own tenancy and this opportunity gained me further knowledge and skills which transferred into future opportunities for me.

During this time I had my little girl and my home life changed. Shift work was difficult to manage and an opportunity to work with young people in Angus became available. This had been my dream job from the age of 16, but now the opportunity to continue this was available and within the company I was already working for.

I applied and was successful in securing the role as a project worker within the Early Intervention and Family Support services and Young People’s Drug and Alcohol services – this role allowed me to work closely alongside social workers and provide early opportunities and interventions with young people. During this time a further opportunity as a service co-ordinator opened up with the successful bid to start the Angus Peer Mental Health service. This then led me to a further opportunity to become an ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Trainer). After three years in this role, Hillcrest Futures had a restructure which enabled me to be in the role I am today as service manager.

Improving people’s lives

The work we do across Angus supports our motto of “helping people live better lives” by creating and developing a positive relationship with people in the community who are really struggling to see light at the end of the tunnel. Whether this is a patient in a GP practice or a young person in the community, our peer and project workers provide holistic, meaningful support to enable people to improve their lives. This includes listening with no judgement and providing coping strategies and intervention. This positively impact people’s lives by creating hope, identity, meaning and empowerment.

I work across three specialisms – young people, mental health and drugs and alcohol. Each are very unique but also very similar. My own values underpin my work and I feel highly motivated in improving lives for people who can’t see a way to move forward. I have lived in Angus the majority of my life and feel passionate in being able to deliver quality care and support to the people of Angus to help them live better lives.

Company culture

I have been supported to grow and learn from the very start of my first placement with Hillcrest Futures up until now as a service manager. I have been able to do a lot of learning and developing to become the role of a manager and my professional and technical knowledge has been enhanced along the way. I always remember the compassion that my first mentor, Elaine showed me when I started and took me under her wing to show me the ropes. Nothing was ever a silly question and she still celebrates my success at every step of my journey – I’m still very grateful for you Elaine. I’ve worked with many teams within Hillcrest Futures and the environment and communication we have is key. We can be dealing with high intense situations and require a supportive framework to help process these.

Advice for future candidates

Care may not be the profession you think about starting, but 12 years later I am still with the same company and have been able to work within eight different services which has given me a variety of experience and created progression in a career pathway that I only dreamed about when I was at college. It enabled me to learn practically on the job rather than going to university.  You must have the ability to build a relationship – people need people and these people need care, so be yourself.

Supporting my work-life balance

I have had the ability to use flexi working on returning from maternity leave which enabled me to have more time at home when my daughter was younger. My work-life balance is based around our annual leave entitlement and I always feel I can use this time to unwind and make memories with my family. We may have to attend events at the weekend or in the evening which can accrue TOIL and enables me to attend my daughter’s school events which some jobs wouldn’t let me do.

Memorable moment and highlights

I have felt like a proud parent of my peer worker team throughout the roll out and delivery of this service. The work and commitment the peers put into this service speaks for the level of referrals and feedback we receive. Within the four years we have been operational we have received over 6,000 referrals. The new pathway has created partnership working that has not only enhanced practice but gained further expertise and collaborative working, and we have now received direct award for the funding element.

We recently got asked to attend an event where I was asked to speak on STV News, something that my younger self would never have dreamed of. I was also recently attending a meeting at the local hospital where my mum works as the main receptionist. I was attending the meeting as the Hillcrest Futures representative within the EcoMapping System of Children and Young Peoples services. I was advised the room I was going to, and she thought I must have got this wrong and couldn’t understand that I was attending this meeting as it was all professionals in attendance, like GPs, nurses and social workers. It was at this point I realised she had no idea the actual remit of my work.