Vantaggi
Supporting and making a difference to adults with a learning disability and with autism. Knowing I am helping some very vulnerable people in society on a daily basis.
Svantaggi
Total lack of management- ( I worked at a residential service)the manager and assistant manager are not based there, rather in a office miles away. As a support worker who does sleep in's and lone working, you basically end up running the place. If there's a medication error which often happens with staff doing a 24 hour shift, you deal with the problem even though you barely have enough time to get everything else done and look after the residents. If a staff member rings in sick you are expected to find cover. You as a support worker will do meds, finances, personal care, cooking, cleaning, arranging appointments, answering the telephone, filling out risk assessments, incident forms, care plans, finance files, medication files, daily records and many more documentation. I as a support worker was responsible for looking after/supporting 4-5 adults from 2.15pm-2.15pm the next day. You can ring management in office hours mon-fri but this is only if you really need to, as was explained to me by the manager 'not if someone run's out of macragol'. Also if someone doesn't turn up to their sleep shift to take you off, you are expected to stay until they can get cover. Long shifts, sleeps, lone working No food or drink allowance when supporting someone out to a pub/restaurant (you sit there with tap water unless you are willing to spend your own money) Again no motivation or support from management, they very rarely come to the service and when doing so they do not say hello or speak to staff, they instead stay in the office and write in a communication book to staff to read instead of telling them face to face. On my last day my manager ignored me. You have to seek out the manager, they will not come to you to even check on staff or communicate with them. A big con is also that if anyone is unhappy about mencap in any area it is seen as being negative rather than a genuine different view. The media side to mencap is extremely good and proficient, again so much so they will deny, refute, try to reason or explain to keep their good image. Mencap do alot of good campaigning and giving advise and information to those with a learning disability, it's a real shame that the residentail/supported living side is let down. Another con would be how incredibly strict they are, this sounds like a good thing but in reality they are too strict so much so it is silly. For example, you are not allowed to refer to service users by their nicknames even though this is what they like to be called, respond to and what is written in their support plans. Another example is being declined for a job because you live too close to the residential service, by too close I'm not talking about round the corner either. To conclude I really wouldn't recommend working for mencap, there are so much better companies to work for.
