Living wonderfully ordinary lives - Adult Social Care

Paula’s OCC journey: Care Placements Officer -> Adult Social Care Coordinator -> Apprentice Occupational Therapist -> Occupational Therapist

Paula is one of our rising stars in Occupational Therapy. Paula’s spent over 11 years at Oxfordshire County Council, originally joining as a Care Placements Officer and most recently, completing her Apprenticeship in Occupational Therapy. Paula’s now a fully qualified Occupational Therapist within our Adult Social Care team.

Living wonderfully ordinary lives.

We’re helping people live the life they want to live. Understanding what someone’s ‘normal’ is and helping them to get there.

Different people have different skillsets and we’re fortunate to have Coordinators who come from a broad range of backgrounds. This creates a great space to develop ideas and we’re always learning from each other.

I’ve got a few superstars.

I love the celebrations that we’re able to have when I’ve spent three, four or five weeks working with someone and helping them get back to living as independently as possible.

Reablement is key and it’s inspirational to watch someone achieve their personal goals, that will have such a huge impact on their life moving forward.

Patch based system

We work off a ‘patch based’ system which means we try to group our jobs to specific geographical areas. This means we’re not spending hours travelling across the county to meet clients.

Working in a specific area means we’re able to develop a depth of knowledge of the services available in community pockets. Essentially, improving the service we’re able to offer to our clients, which is what it’s all about!

I’ve found a career that fits.

When the OT Apprenticeship came up, I was encouraged to apply for it. It’s not something I would have done if I hadn’t had the backing and funding of an employer, and I felt quite nervous about applying.

I was on a phone call when I received the email saying that my application had been successful.

I stood up and put my hands in the air.

Everyone around me knew that I’d been waiting for the result, and they all started to come up to me to celebrate while I was still on another phone call. That was where it all started.

I’ve found a career that fits and aligns with the things I’ve tried to achieve in my life. ?

I’ve already done a lot of training on posture and seating. There are opportunities to look at moving and handling and other aspects of social care. We overlap with lots of different agencies, so it’s a huge field and I’m just scratching the surface.

I have a huge loyalty to Oxfordshire County Council. I was incredibly supported throughout my four years of my training and I can see my future career developing here.

To anyone thinking about doing an occupational therapy apprenticeship, I’d say do it.

Your life will become wonderfully unrecognizable.

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View our Adult Social Care vacancies:

Social Worker - Adult Social Care OCC615469 (newjob.org.uk)

Occupational Therapist - OCC614768 (newjob.org.uk)

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