My care journey with Henshaws

Meet Liz, our Senior Healthcare Assistant who has been working at Henshaws for around 15 years. She started as an enabler and in this blog she shares her story.

About me

My name is Liz and I’m a Senior Healthcare Assistant at Henshaws Specialist College. I began working as an Enabler at Henshaws in October 2007, working in Spring House (which is now known as Ribble).

I had been in care work since I left school in 1996, doing various caring roles including working in hospitals and care homes. Also I worked with adults with learning disabilities for 3 years before joining Henshaws.

Joining Henshaws as an Enabler

My role as an enabler was to support students to develop their independence by working on their life skills. This included cooking, cleaning, as well as helping them with maths and English. This all contributes to giving them the confidence to live as independently as possible after their time with us.

We also planned weekend trips to the coast, local pubs and restaurants. In the evenings there were weekly activities such as book club, swimming clubs, gym clubs and of course the much anticipated Friday night disco!

Becoming a Senior Care Officer

I was able to work towards my level 2 NVQ in health and social care alongside my full time enabler role. And after a year the opportunity arose for me to be promoted to Senior Care Officer (now known as deputy care leads).

I worked alongside the house manager and was responsible for the day to day running of the service. This included planning and writing students care plans, keeping staffing at a safe level, rota cover, completing supervisions and yearly appraisals for the staff.

At this time I was also able to complete my level 3 NVQ in health and social care. In 2011 I had a year out for maternity leave. I then made the decision to step down from my Senior Care Officer  position and become an enabler again

Moving to our clinical team

I continued in the enabler role until 2018 when the opportunity to apply for a Heathcare Assistant job came up. This was working in the newly formed clinical team comprising of a registered nurse and two Healthcare Assistants.

We provide support to staff and students with all aspects of care. This involves writing clinical care plans for students, personal care support, medication, PEG feeding training and competency’s.

Becoming a Senior Healthcare Assistant

Due to the levels of support that our students were needing and more students applying who have complex clinical needs, the clinical team expanded in 2020. I was able to interview for and be successful in being promoted to Senior Healthcare Assistant. In this role I manage the Healthcare Assistant Team.