We all love working with Byron
Byron started working in the residential sector on the 1st June 2017. A Support Worker at The Grange, he was recently nominated by his Service Manager with the whole teams backing for his outstanding work for the Newcomer Award in the Learning Disability and Autism Awards.
Whilst Byron didn’t make the shortlist this time around we are incredibly proud of him and hope his story inspires others to think about a career in social care supporting people with learning disability and complex needs. Here Chris Charles, Deputy Manager, The Grange shares why Byron is deserving of recognition:
“Byron works in an instinctively person-centred way getting to know supported individuals and looks for activities to suit them. His passion means, he also does a lot of this in his own time, taking into the service leaflets and ideas he has found on the internet.
One example of this was, when, after working with a supported individual who really liked water play he looked for some water-based activities that he hadn’t tried. He personally went to visit Paddlers in Llanelli to see if they would be able to help offer G a chance to go out in a Canoe.
They were and so, Byron patiently took G along to a few sessions, got him used to wearing a dry suit, getting into a Canoe and after a few months G was paddling out of the lake and onto the river, he absolutely loves it.
Byron is now working in partnership with Paddlers in Llanelli, who are seeking to support more individuals with learning disabilities, resulting so far with the organisation planning to learn to sign via Lime Grove’s Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) team.
Byron took on the role of key working G at Lime Grove and spent a lot of time working with him around his communication difficulties. This involved Byron designing a key ring with all the important signs on for G to use as well as researching signing, again Byron did all the research, design and making the key ring in his own time.
Byron has also been very passionate about teaching life skills at Lime Grove, The Grange and again devised a goal setting plan for the team to use to record all the tiny steps that lead to people’s independence in many areas such as making drinks and food for themselves. This system has been in place for several months now and all the team enjoy using it and supported individuals are enjoying learning new skills.
Byron has become a role model for the whole team, who all speak very highly of him, he always offers support, great communication and leadership skills but in a very quiet and unassuming way.
Again, he gave a lot of thought to one of our supported individuals who liked the sensation of ripping and tearing things and he bought in some plastic ties which had tiny plastic hooks on that could be pulled up and down. He also bought in his own binoculars when he noticed that S also liked listening to the birds, and we are now aiming to take S to a wetland area to observe birds when he gets the hand of the binoculars.
Most recently, Byron brought in model planes for M and investigated model aeroplane groups for him to attend. An in the meantime, he has spent time making paper planes and made up a hide and seek game for him which made him laugh and improved his confidence.