My name is Stephen Weston. I work at Thornfield Grange in the North East and my current role is Acting Senior Support Worker.
Having completed a Leadership and Management Apprenticeship with Cygnet I have continued to develop my career and started my Advanced Nursing Apprenticeship in October 2024.
I plan to become a Nurse and make positive impactful changes for the people we support at Cygnet. None of this would achievable without the support and guidance I received since starting at Cygnet.
Cygnet not only changes the lives of the people we support and care for, but it also provides the opportunities for staff to further develop and change their lives too.
My Previous Career and Why I Chose Cygnet
From a very young age I didn’t really know what I wanted to do work wise.
All I knew is I wanted a family, and that kind of happened when me and my partner were young. We were 18.
My job history kind of just went from one job to another. I was an international marketing consultant, I did Internet sales, and then my last job before joining Cygnet was in a kitchen. I was a kitchen assistant in a care home.
I joined Cygnet on 1st March 2021 and my first role was as a support worker. I’d just put out on Facebook if anyone knew of any jobs going and my friend who was a nurse at Thornfield said, “You should come and join us. You have the qualities to do what needs to be done at Cygnet.”
I didn’t know much about the service, I didn’t know much about Thornfield, I didn’t know much about learning disabilities. But because I wanted to move jobs and work in care I applied for it, and got the job.
Before starting, I felt like Cygnet’s core values were the same as my personal values. With having a family, I cared a lot. I cared a lot about my children, I cared a lot about people in general. I always went above and beyond to speak to friends to make sure everyone’s OK and support them with whatever was needed.
And I gave a lot of support, respect, and just empowering my friends without even knowing. So I feel like that’s what they saw in me, and I was honest, calm, relaxed, and since then it’s kind of just aligned with Cygnet’s values.
My Apprenticeship Journey
I completed my six month probation period and the manager at Thornfield sent an email explaining all the Apprenticeships Cygnet offers – from learning disabilities, leadership and management, the list goes on.
I got some feedback from the activity coordinator at Thornfield who said I should pick leadership and management. I looked into that Apprenticeship and I liked what it entailed. I spoke to my manager, who nominated me and I was lucky enough to be accepted in 2022.
The Apprenticeship I did was the Leadership and Management Level 3. It was supposed to be a one year course, but due to me not having GCSEs with C or above in English or literacy, I had to redo my literacy functional skills, so it took close to two years in total.
With an Apprenticeship, you’re not doing extra studies in addition to your work day. It’s all involved in your work, so you’re not having to work additional hours. So that fits in really well with my family life.
Through the one year course we did theory work and work booklets. We had online sessions to go through the theory side of things and towards the end of the Apprenticeship, we did professional discussions and I had to make a PowerPoint presentation on what I’ve learned and how I’ve implemented that in the service essentially.
We had to do a case study on what we’ve implemented and discussed that with the examination board.
Balancing Work and Family Life
I’ve got a 13-year-old boy, an 11-year-old boy who’s just started secondary school and I’ve got a four-year-old daughter. So it’s really important for me personally to have that work-life balance. I don’t have spare time, along with my working hours, to put towards education because I want to be there for my family.
So going through an Apprenticeship with Cygnet really does help, and it helps the family, and I’m able to do the stuff I need to do, but I’m able to study at the same time, which is super
useful.
My Leadership and Management Apprenticeship is completed now. But when I was doing it I got a lot of support, a lot of encouragement and, to be honest, what I’ve moved on to now wouldn’t all be possible without the support and the knowledge the Apprenticeships given to me. So I’m super grateful for that.
I did my Leadership and Management Level 3 and I was able to take part in the Gold Award 2024, which is internal management training. From there I’ve moved on to my Advanced Nursing Apprenticeship through Cygnet as well.
I always say to people, if you find an Apprenticeship that you like or that interests you, put your name forward for it, because if you get nominated you’re not taking extra time and you’re achieving something that you might not be able to achieve without the Cygnet support.
I’m always telling people about the Apprenticeships that Cygnet offers, and since starting my Nursing, everyone’s asking how it’s going, how’s the work life balance, what am I learning? And I’m more than happy to tell them what I’m learning because I’m really enjoying what I’m learning at the moment.
The staff at Thornfield have been absolutely excellent at supporting me. I went to University College Birmingham and they have been absolutely excellent. You get to meet other Cygnet staff from different services. You’re learning about what they do on a day-to-day basis, which is interesting to me personally. And you get to make these national connections which you never thought you would.
But the main thing is definitely the support that you get, not just from Cygnet itself, but from UCB in general. It’s been super excellent, brilliant.
My Hopes for the Future
Nurses have always interested me in what they do, care plan support, what they able to develop with the support and care that support workers follow for the individuals that we support. I remember a supervision that I had with one great nurse who was excellent.
He sat me down and he said, “I’ve been in nursing, dealing with learning disabilities, for X amount of years. When you do supervisions with people, straight away you can find out who cares for the job and who doesn’t; who’s in because of the pay cheque, because it’s the only available job, and you definitely care about your job.”
I appreciate that, and the people that we support appreciate that, and it just gives me so much encouragement. He uplifted me in that moment, and I remember feeling like one day I would love to be in the position, not only doing the work that nurses do with the development of care plans, medication, etc., with the people that we support, but also being that role model within the service and being able to motivate and uplift staff and give them opportunities.
Since then, I’ve always wanted to be a nurse. And since going through the Apprenticeship programmes I’ve now managed to get on to the Advanced Nursing Degree, which means so much. Before my goal in life was to have a family, as outside of that, I’d never felt like university was for me. That’s only been achievable by doing a Cygnet Apprenticeship.
I am forever grateful for the opportunities that have been given to me, to my family, to my children, an ultimate career goal. After I finish my Advanced Nursing Degree, I would like to be in a service doing nursing to develop my skills and fundamentals, put into practice what I’ve learned.
From there, I don’t really know. I feel like after getting the experience that’s needed, I’d like to be in a position where I could possibly impact what nurses do, whether that’s a clinical lead or something higher than that. But I would very much like to be impactful, whether it’s changing policies or protocol to further advance the healthcare provided to the individuals that we support.
My Advice to Anyone Considering an Apprenticeship
I would just say, if your interest is there to definitely just go ahead and do it. If you’re holding back because you feel like you don’t have an academic background or you might struggle, then you’ll never know about the support that you can get while going through the Apprenticeship.
Doing an Apprenticeship has changed my life. It’s changed my outlook. It’s changed what I want to be. It’s changed the support that I can give to other people. Most importantly, I think it’s changed the view of what my children see. Having children young, it’s easy to get stuck in a dead end job and not being satisfied with what you’re doing.
No matter what happens when you’re younger, no matter how old you are, no matter your academic background, or your personal situation, you can achieve something, and even if you’re just thinking of doing it, just do it, because the support’s there and I believe anyone can do it.