The history part whatever plus one: Work
2006 will be a very interesting year at work. Under Valuing People all long-stay Learning Disability hospitals should already have closed. Ours is still in the process. Several people have been resettled, and other plans are at various stages of completion. My experience in Social Services has come in handy when looking at the plans. The OT service is also changing. Having been a day service for many years, serving 60 odd onsite and community clients, we are in the process of setting up a community service serving more like 900 clients in the borough.
Meanwhile the team has been changing. We have all been through the delightful pay review process of Agenda for Change. This meant that for a while the OT assistants were graded higher than the nursing assistants, and the senior OTs higher than the nurses doing an equivalent job.
There were 3 senior OTs in the department. One has just started a new job nearer to home. My manager is due to go on maternity leave in February. And me. I was due to 'Act up' during tbe maternity leave (quite literally... I was making all sorts of dire threats as to how I would change the department... start basket weaving and the like...). However, now we have no idea how much I’m likely to be in work over the next year. I could be off for just a few weeks, or I might not even be up to working for a year. Probably somewhere in-between.
I spent a frantic week just before Christmas trying to sort everything out, handing over my caseload and responsibilities, cancelling courses etc, and loads of meetings. At one stage I was in two meetings at once, and also putting my head round the door of the social room where the 'animal man' was showing tarantulas and owls to the clients and the children from the nursery, including Eleanor. (No, she didn't touch any of them. And the owl tried to bite me!)
So the team are going to have to cope without senior specialist input. Though the head OT in the trust, the LD general manager and various other big cheeses have offered support. I also have the ability to go into work as much or as little as I am able, and to do as much or little work as I am capable of when I am there. This is very encouraging, as I don't want to feel that my diagnosis should automatically write me off for the year...
Meanwhile the team has been changing. We have all been through the delightful pay review process of Agenda for Change. This meant that for a while the OT assistants were graded higher than the nursing assistants, and the senior OTs higher than the nurses doing an equivalent job.
There were 3 senior OTs in the department. One has just started a new job nearer to home. My manager is due to go on maternity leave in February. And me. I was due to 'Act up' during tbe maternity leave (quite literally... I was making all sorts of dire threats as to how I would change the department... start basket weaving and the like...). However, now we have no idea how much I’m likely to be in work over the next year. I could be off for just a few weeks, or I might not even be up to working for a year. Probably somewhere in-between.
I spent a frantic week just before Christmas trying to sort everything out, handing over my caseload and responsibilities, cancelling courses etc, and loads of meetings. At one stage I was in two meetings at once, and also putting my head round the door of the social room where the 'animal man' was showing tarantulas and owls to the clients and the children from the nursery, including Eleanor. (No, she didn't touch any of them. And the owl tried to bite me!)
So the team are going to have to cope without senior specialist input. Though the head OT in the trust, the LD general manager and various other big cheeses have offered support. I also have the ability to go into work as much or as little as I am able, and to do as much or little work as I am capable of when I am there. This is very encouraging, as I don't want to feel that my diagnosis should automatically write me off for the year...
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