By Beth Jay – The Therapeutic Care Journal

1st April 2021

Reminiscing back to my time as an agency worker working in children’s homes, emotions were mixed. The excitement of a new job, meeting new people, the desire to help looked-after children and young people, and a feeling of accomplishment in getting the work experience needed. Yet day-to-day, shift-to-shift, my emotions were on the other end of the spectrum: loneliness, confusion and fear. I compared my emotional experiences to those employed permanently, consistent members of the homes, rather than someone like myself, who came and went. Does support work in residential children’s homes impact agency staff differently to permanent staff, as the relational work undertaken is inevitably different? Are permanent staffs’ emotions felt more deeply, exposed or hidden more? Or do permanent staff receive more or less support from peers? One thing is for sure, mundane emotions in residential children’s homes are definitely few and far between.

Read in full at Source: Making ratios not relationships. By Beth Jay – The Therapeutic Care Journal