Melanie’s story
Children, Young People and Families
Meet Melanie. As Centre Manager for the Secret Garden Children’s Centre, parents, carers and children throughout the borough rely on her support. It’s such a rewarding role that she’s even helped a young mum go on to train in family support herself. She also briefly covers the selection process, her scenic commute and the chance to gain qualifications.
I decided to work for Barnsley Council, because I was being made redundant from a children’s centre in Wakefield, and I already had to travel through Barnsley. So I knew the area and decided that as a job came up here that that would be ideal for me.
The process was similar to all local government processes. I filled out an application form online, and heard by letter that I’d got an interview. And then after the interview I was informed that I’d been successful and just had to wait for the CRB checks to be completed.
I started off in a job share position part-time, working for Barnsley Choices, which is the Early Childhood Service here in Barnsley. There was a sudden vacancy here at the Secret Garden Children’s Centre for a manager, and I was asked to cover that part-time, which I did for 15 months. In April I was appointed full-time manager here.
Barnsley Council supported me to develop within my role by offering plenty of training opportunities, particularly for statutory training, which we need as children centre managers. And I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to start my national professional qualification in integrated centre leadership, which is a masters level qualification for centre leaders and is nationally recognised.
The best thing about my role is the fact that it’s so varied. I get to meet lots of different people from the community, and work with lots of different professionals. We’ve got childcare here, family support workers, outreach workers, and we also have other professionals working here. We all work as a team, and what we’re trying to focus on is improving outcomes for children and families in this area.
I don’t actually live in Barnsley, I live about 15 miles away, but my commute to work is so easy. It’s through the countryside, I don’t have to encounter any traffic jams, I get to see beautiful countryside on my way here, and when I get here it’s so easy to get to my place of work.
My work is really stimulating and really rewarding. Recently we’ve been working with a young parent who has gone back - to college. She’s actually got to the point where she’s training to be a Family Support Worker, and came back here on a placement visit.
A typical day in my job starts early. I meet the cleaners about 7.30 when they finish to find out if there are any problems. Then there’s a lot of paperwork to be done, lots of reporting and monitoring. But then I do get the opportunity to actually work with families and meet with them, play with the children, and hopefully by the end of the day I’ll actually have finished all the emails that I get as well.
I’d recommend working at Barnsley Council to a friend because it really is a great place to work. There are lots of different opportunities, particularly working in Children, Young People and Families. And as it’s a small authority most people have dual roles here, and so they’d never be bored.
