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A week in the life of… a head of care and supported housing
Alyson Stapleton is head of care and supported housing (Berkshire) at Hightown Housing Association. Alyson currently oversees services for autistic people, people with learning disabilities and people with mental health needs in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. She talks us through a week of tender applications and meetings with partner agencies
Monday
My role involves working on cross-agency collaboration, strategy, delivery, policy and business growth. I oversee 27 services in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. Although I do not work directly with service users, I am dedicated to bettering their lives through developing a strong workforce.
It’s a busy week. I start my morning with my monthly contract monitoring meeting with our local authority commissioners in Buckinghamshire. We discuss operational and contractual issues, new initiatives, innovation and service development, as well as safeguarding cases, quality issues, capacity (any voids we may have), and referrals.
I am also a trustee of the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group. I attend their virtual quarterly board meeting, where we discuss topics affecting the sector.
Tuesday
Today’s priority is to review and upload a tender for a new supported living framework. As a specialist supported living provider, we are seeking opportunities to grow the business outside of our normal operating areas.
In the afternoon, I catch up with emails and routine tasks such as quality checking and signing off reviews for new employees.
To end the day, I attend the East Berkshire Workforce Development Board meeting. This collaboration is about attracting people into care and promoting that you can have a career in care and support like me. I started 22 years ago, as a winter project worker in homelessness.
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Wednesday
I visit one of my extra-care supported living services in Aylesbury for a country-themed party that staff organised to lift the spirits of our service users. This is a great opportunity for me to catch up with the people we support, frontline staff and managers.
My agenda for the afternoon includes cross-departmental meetings reviewing our key performance indicators (KPIs), recruitment approach, business development and risk and quality.
I also attend Hightown’s Equality and Diversity Forum. The forum drives change in relation to equality and diversity, to ensure no one is at a disadvantage because of who they are. I am passionate about creating an inclusive work environment.
Thursday
I have my weekly one-to-ones with my managers. This brings me up to speed on what’s happening in the services and contractual monitoring, any accidents and incidents that occurred the previous week, and any individual safeguarding concerns.
We review our performance against KPIs – vacancies, absence monitoring, staff turnover and agency spend. One of Hightown’s targets is to eliminate our use of agency workers.
Friday
I hold a virtual ‘power hour’ meeting with all my service and operational managers in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. Today’s focus is our Driving Up Quality framework.
Later, I attend an awards ceremony to support and celebrate one of my amazing managers, Julie Monaghan, who is a national finalist.
A week in the life series
Our ‘A week in the life’ series features housing professionals talking through what they do in their job on a day-to-day basis.
Find out about the different challenges housing workers in a variety of roles face in a given week.
We aim to feature staff from housing associations, ALMOs, local authorities and more.
Click here to nominate yourself or a colleague for inclusion
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