My Kind of Job: Michael Hutchinson, Inspire

Inspire Wellbeing is a charity and social enterprise based in Northern Ireland focusing on promoting wellbeing for all through mental health, intellectual/learning disability and professional wellbeing services locally, across the island of Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

Michael Hutchinson joined Inspire as a Project Worker and is currently Acting Deputy Manager for a supported housing scheme in Lisburn.

He told NIJobs.com about his job and why he’d recommend working with Inspire to people passionate about a career in social care.

How did you come to work for Inspire?

After completing my master’s degree in Applied Psychology and having worked for another social care charity for two years, supporting people with learning difficulties, I was looking out for another role that would allow me to work in the mental health area of social care. I wanted to gain some experience and hopefully utilize some of the knowledge that I had gained during my time in university.

I had been looking out for a job within Inspire (then called NIAMH) for a while, as they were the most widely known mental health charity and the roles they advertised for really appealed to me. After being shortlisted for a project worker role in another supported housing scheme, I was offered a full time job in a scheme in South Belfast, which I gladly accepted.

How long have you been in your current role?

I am currently the Acting Deputy Manager for a supported housing scheme in Lisburn. I have been in my current role for only 1 month and expect it to continue for a further 11 months to cover maternity leave. This offers a great opportunity for me to gain experience in the role and may help me secure a permanent position in the future.

What other positions have you held within Inspire in your time here, and in what locations?

My first position within the company was as a Project Worker in a mental health supported living scheme in South Belfast, supporting service users with a range of mental health conditions to live as normal life as possible. This involved offering support, guidance and encouragement with everyday living tasks such as cooking and grocery shopping, and getting out into the community to take part in activities they enjoy. It also allowed me to be a key worker for a number of the service users who lived there, giving me the opportunity to work alongside them to make their support plan as person centred as possible.

My second role within Inspire came two years into my employment with the organization. I felt that if I wanted to advance my career within Inspire, I needed to look to other schemes as a way of enhancing my skills and knowledge which would help my career progression.

This second role (which is also my substantive post when the acting up post ends) is as a Team Leader within a scheme in West Belfast that supports adults with learning disabilities and/or challenging behaviour and complex needs. This role has allowed me to learn a lot more about first line management within supported housing. In this role, I have the responsibility of supervising staff, liaising with other professionals involved in the care and support of the service users, conducting interviews for new staff members and in the absence of the manager or deputy manager, be responsible for the safe and effective running of the scheme itself.

 Have you taken advantage of any internal programs/initiatives supporting your development?

Each year, Inspire offer a limited number of places for a number of relevant courses that staff can apply for. I was successful at obtaining a place on the QCF level 5 Diploma in Leadership in Health and Social Care last year. This course allows those who haven’t a degree in Nursing or Social Work to apply for middle to senior management roles within Inspire.

What is great about this is that not only do Inspire cover the cost of this course, they also allow you to take study days to help you complete it. Having only completed the course in June, to be in a management role in such a short space of time I have been quite fortunate, but on the other hand, it would not have been possible without being given the opportunity to complete this course in the first place.

How would you describe a typical day or week in your role?

A typical day in my role starts with getting a handover from my colleagues on anything that has happened from the last time I was on duty. This includes checking to see if there is anything I need to follow up on regarding a service user and making sure everything is running smoothly on the scheme and that all the service users and staff are getting the support that they need. I would then check my emails and from there I can prioritize what needs to be done for the day.

Although each day is different, there are a number of things that I am responsible for in my role as deputy manager and which are undertaken routinely. Some of the tasks that I am responsible for would include the staff rota, making sure that the service users receive the care and support they need throughout each day. Another task is to conduct audits of things such as service users’ medication, their finances and their personal files.

Completing these tasks supports the staff working directly with the service users to ensure that the tasks are being completed correctly and in line with the organizational policy, RQIA Standards and NISCC codes of conduct and practice. This in turns allows the service users to be supported in a safe and effective manner.

What’s the best thing about your role or the team that you work in?

The best thing about my role is the people that I work with. We keep each other motivated and are always there to support each other. This is really important, as working in this field can be challenging at times and having others around you that you can lean on can make all the difference.

What would you say to someone who was considering a career at Inspire?

I would recommend anyone to apply for a job with Inspire. It is a company that invests in its staff. They are an organization that is expanding, there are plenty of opportunities for people to build their career with Inspire. I have moved from Project Worker to Deputy Manager in less than 4 years, and the opportunities do not finish there. There are also opportunities to move further up within the organization should that be something you wish to explore.

Aside from moving up within the organization, I have enjoyed my time working in all three of the different Inspire schemes that I have been based in and so for anyone looking to either embark on a health & social care career or even change their career path and move into health and social care, Inspire would be great choice.