As manager, I oversee about 25 workers. We have a 51-place nursery and run a range of services such as antenatal classes, speech and language and a creche. We have a speech and language therapist, home visitors, a health worker and a home safety worker.
Marketing the centre to the local community is a big part of what I do. We tend to target the most vulnerable parents and children who are often reticent about coming.
A big issue round here is that many children have below average language and literacy skills. We work hard to bring children up to speed, which complements the work of local schools. Our language worker has been a real asset.
We have also launched a home safety scheme, which I'd like to see extended to other areas. If you are brought up in a disadvantaged home you are more likely to have accidents. We have a worker who goes round people's homes to give safety advice and we also fit safety equipment. It's a very popular service and acts as a way of getting through the door so we can get people to use other services.
One of the things I find most fulfilling about the job is helping a parent find employment. This is a former industrial area with a lot of unemployment and more than half of adults have no qualifications. We run a training and employment project for parents called Start Up in conjunction with the Northicote School. It provides ICT training, literacy and numeracy qualifications to support parents getting back to work. If we've helped people gain qualifications that have led to a job, we get a real sense of having improved their quality of life.
