From our Services to our Central Support Office, we’re always introducing and looking for ways to support our colleagues with career development, and finding their perfect role. Whether that’s offering development courses for Support Workers looking to become Team Leaders, or supporting colleagues with a change in career direction – career paths come in all shapes and sizes.
Encouraging colleagues to flourish in their careers at Consensus, one of the areas we love to support people with is changing teams into different areas of the organisation; just like our fantastic Referrals & Partnerships Manager did, Sharon McRobbie.
Joining one of our specialist PWS services Gretton House back in 1990 when she was just 17 years old, Sharon worked her way up from Support Worker to Registered Manager within 10 years, and remained the Service Manager up until 2020 when she wanted to take on a new challenge in life. Finding herself coming to a crossroads with her career direction and wanting to learn new skills, Sharon was supported to make the leap to the Referrals team, and it’s safe to say the team don’t know what they’d do without her!
Finding out more about her career path and how she transitioned from Service Manager to the Referrals team, we had a chat with Sharon to delve into her incredible career journey at Consensus.
“Well, I can still remember my first shift at Gretton House back in 1990. I was on a late shift, it was the 1st of September, and I was only 17 years old. It was my first career role, and it’s safe to say I absolutely loved it since I then stayed on for 30 years. Within 10 years of starting at Gretton House I became the Service Manager, and loved supporting people every day for 20 years.”
“As the registered manager I had help achieving qualifications, and was one of the first managers to complete the future leaders programme ran by Consensus. It was a chance to meet people from different departments and exposure to all the different careers within Consensus, and it was the first time in my head I thought about the different career opportunities. I had itchy feet and wanted to try something different, learn new skills, and challenge myself to something new.”
“I was certain I wanted to remain in the care industry and wanted to continue supporting people, so the wonderful work the Referrals team do helping people find their forever homes was something I was passionate about. And with my experience supporting people with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), it was a really good fit helping the Referrals team with this aspect. The whole team were so welcoming and supported me to learn everything around funding, finding the perfect placement, and the hardest part – turning down placements when they’re not the right fit. I think that’s been the biggest challenge I’ve learnt is it’s got to be right service for the right person, not just giving people a place for the sake of it!”
“It’s been a real joy seeing the rest of the amazing services across Consensus, outside of Gretton House. Consensus is an innovative company, and go above and beyond for the people we look after – it’s not just filling a bed, it’s what can we provide for a person to flourish. The team and mentoring have been wonderful, and there’s a real culture of support. I’ve learnt new skills, met lets of new people, and found another career which I absolutely love.”
“One of my favourite memories has to be the garden parties we used to throw at Gretton House – bringing all the people we support and their families together. And since being in my Referrals role, one of my highlights has been supporting a lady to move into Haydock House after previously struggling in a hospital based setting. She is now absolutely loving life, and it’s been amazing for her family to see her so happy.
Oh, and one final memory of being pregnant and crying at a Health & Safety meeting as I had turned up wearing odd shoes!”
Career paths come in many different shapes and forms at Consensus – a place where every moment matters, we’re always supporting our colleagues to make this their moment, no matter the career direction they want to head towards.
