We spoke to Emma Lloyd, who is the Service Manager for two supported living houses in Blackpool about her AI story.

Emma has been part of the team at Autism Initiatives for 5 years now. She started as a Support Worker, and then a year later she moved on to become a Senior Support Worker. Following on from this, she was supported with more training and development to become a Service Manager.  Here’s her insights into the role and working for Autism Initiatives:

What is the most rewarding part of your role?

I love to see the people we work alongside achieve their goals and gain independence. Something could seem like a small goal to one person, but be a massive achievement for someone else. I was so proud recently when the team went swimming with ‘G’.  ‘G’ hadn’t swam in 20 years, and since building up her confidence, she’s enjoys going twice a week with her Support Workers. She is a different person, and over time she has become very social. She loves to spend time in the living room now, rather than in her bedroom. She had a milestone birthday recently, and to celebrate, the team took her out to Ma Kelly’s.

I also enjoy encouraging the team to try new ways of interacting and relating to the people they work alongside, as every person who uses the service is unique and has a difference way of learning. As a team, we are great at thinking outside the box and teaching people things in different ways that work for them.

What does your day-to-day schedule look like?

My day involves managing the staff team. There’s also some paperwork involved. We work alongside ten autistic people, as well as two people who use Autism Initiatives’ Outreach services.

As our services are growing, I also help out with recruitment when needed. This involves holding recruitment days and interviews with potential candidates. There are a few people who have used our services for years that now do some recruitment work for us, such as advising on the type of candidates they’d like to see, helping to refine interview questions and attending recruitment events with the team. It’s amazing to see the organisation becoming more autistic-led and being a part of that change.

I also get to do lots of fun things with the people who use the service. The team at one of the houses organised a trip to the Lake District this summer for the six people who use the service. We had a fantastic time!

What is the best thing about Autism Initiatives as an organisation?

I like that we get good support in our roles from other departments. For example, if there’s something I’m not sure about, then I can call the Practice Team or speak to a nurse practitioner and get advice from a specialist quickly. My Area Manager once picked up the phone at 2am, which I will be eternally grateful for! I think it’s great that everyone here receives specific autism and epilepsy training. There’s also a lot of room for progression and development.