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A Counsellor in the Pudsey Schools Cluster shares their experiences of working at Barca-Leeds to mark National Inclusion Week 2022.
I have been working in the Pudsey Cluster team for over 6 years, as a counsellor for young people aged 9 to 18 years. My time is split between face to face work, mostly in secondary schools, and the admin around that work which I now do from home. This balance works incredibly well, particularly to meet my needs as a wheelchair user.
As someone who requires 24-hour physical support, note-taking and travel can take significantly longer. For a short time, I wasn’t able to keep up with all the work within my hours so in a discussion with my managers we mutually decided that it would be much more effective to reduce my caseload by 1. This allowed me to provide greater focus and attention to those on my caseload, rather than rushing to complete the ‘musts’.
Prior to COVID, each of the secondary schools I worked in had accessible toilet facilities, which meant I could be out of the house most of the day and be comfortable. However, as someone who is high risk and needed to avoid as much contact with people and communal spaces as possible, work was brilliant at adapting to my needs by giving me referrals for young people in the same school as each other. This meant I was able to find a setting that was appropriate and safe then, go home to use the toilet facilities and complete my admin. Barca-Leeds provided a wireless headset and a wireless easy access mousepad to enhance my independence and efficiency whilst working from home. This was massively liberating, and I was so thankful.
I feel extremely valued and cared for by Barca-Leeds, and have done the whole time I have worked with them. At many different points my managers have checked in with me, reassessed and altered my working pattern to suit my changing needs. I feel honoured to be part of an organisation that notices, really listens, hears, and responds, to enable someone to work to the best of their ability.
