Morton Lea Home Opening

How and when did you decide upon working within Children’s Residential Care?

After my long stint in education, leaving with a keen interest in Psychology and child development, I needed to earn some money! Therefore, I began working at the local RDA Charity (Riding for the disabled) horse yard. It was here where I began to meet, work with and love spending time with young people with a connection to the care system. RDA offered these young people with various disabilities, disorders and adverse childhood experiences, an hour of there week where they could spend time with horses either riding or caring for them. This hour was their favourite hour of the week, and I adored facilitating that hour.

I then found a second job too good to miss. Rainbow Horses, an alternative education which enabled young people to spend their entire school day, learning, exploring, and enjoying a nature focused setting where animals, the outdoors and their positive relationships with the staff were the emphasis. This educational setting focused on developing a child’s emotional regulation, self-awareness, resilience, and social skills through adult-supported interaction with horses, other animals, and the natural environment. This job role, alongside my academic background opened my eyes to the world of fantastic and engaging young people who deserve caring and nurturing professionals to progress and potentially heal any missed areas of childhood development.

I then moved back North to my hometown and decided that having supported these young people throughout their hobbies and their education, Residential Care would be my next step, where I would be able to care for and support young people in every aspect of their lives. From then on, I have enjoyed each day working for North Lakes Children Services.