FIRST PERSON: Award-winning care worker Jenny Stedman

“WITH the project I did with the LD (learning difficulties) flats that site is where I went to school. That was knocked down and the flats were built on that site in Cwmbran. Then I moved to Beechwood on Chepstow Road. I went to Somerton School and from there I went to Hartridge.

I have two brothers and a sister and my sister went Hartridge and my brothers went to St Julians. At the time it was when Lliswerry School was opening but I didn’t want to go there so I went with my sister.

I left school with no qualifications – well, with some small GCSEs. I enjoyed myself at school. I could have worked a lot harder if I’d put more work in and I would have come out with more than I did.

I first worked in a cake shop in Newport on the government training scheme. So I did that first. It was where Littlewoods is – it’s a hairdressers now. From there I went to another government training scheme in St Woolos Hospital as a domestic, but I always wanted to be a nurse. I was quite happy at St Woolos because it was that environment.

But then I met my ex-partner – I’ve never married – and I met him when I was 16. When I was 18, I moved up to Pontypool. I trained then to be a sewing machinist because when you went to the Job Centre, they always wanted machinists. So I went on a training scheme in Newport and ended up in a sewing factory in Pontypool. Then I moved down to another sewing factory, where Robert Price is in Newport.

I had my first child when I was 24 in 1986, Robert, and then had my second child, Joanne, in 1988. My daughter works for the local authority in the reablement team, so she’s sort of followed me.

How I ended up working for social services was that my neighbour worked with me in the sewing factory and she got this job in Plas-Y-Garn residential home in Pontypool, but it was a relief job and I went and put my name up there. It wasn’t even a permanent contract, but it worked for me in the earlier years because I’d had my children – my son was in school and my neighbour would take him to school as my mum lived in Newport. In fact, my family still live in Newport.

I started as a relief worker – which meant I did anything from cooking, being a laundry assistant to domestic work. I was about 25 or 26 when I started working for the council in 1990.

From there I got a permanent job in the evenings and I was a care assistant, which was full-time shift work then. I was there about 10 years and I worked my way up there so I was acting up as an officer. So I’ve always had the opportunity to develop wherever I’ve been.

Then I left Plas-Y-Garn and I ended up as a support worker in the community intervention team in Torfaen – again in a temporary post and that was working with all adults over 18 in the community and with learning difficulties. I really loved that job, really thrived in that job.

But then my children were a lot older. All I can remember is that I had two children in school and we used to get working tax credit – I was on my own at the time – and I was looking at what qualifications I could get.

I decided to do my social work qualifications – that was without the council, originally. I applied to do it and was deferred for a year because there wasn’t a space. It must have been a good omen because the following year the council started to pay you to do your course. So they actually funded my course while I was working, so I feel I was really fortunate. That was at UWIC (University of Wales Institute, Cardiff) on a three-year course.

I was fortunate in that I got a post as a social worker in the community intervention team, which was a team I really loved. I was an assistant manager there and then it was disbanded and I had the role of shutting the team down. From there I was offered the post of a hospital social worker team manager, but I never went there.

There had been a lot of work going on around better solutions for people with learning disabilities. They didn’t want to live with mum and dad, they didn’t want to live in supported living. So there was a plan with Melin Homes to build something we could use. I sort of project-managed it through – that’s what I got the award for.

There are nine flats (in the award-winning project) – and we kept one as a training flat.

For people who applied, it’s a different way of living; these people all had their own way of living. There’s not 24 hours support all the time, it’s a different way of working. It had been done around the country, but we’d never done anything like that in Torfaen before.

I worked with the housing association and the builders to get everything set up. They moved in last year.

I’m now working on the extra site there and they’re moving in next week. That’s the last thing on that site.

I’ve been a complex care coordinator from April this year – that’s about whether the local authority pay for your care or if the health board pay for your care. It is a bit of a battle and what I’ve always been given is a challenge.

My son played rugby from the age of five and he was very good at football. Then he went back to rugby and has always done well there. He played for Gwent Schools, then he played for Wales under-16s, under-18s. People said he was too small – he’s only six foot.

He plays No 7, he’s a flanker. He went through youth with Pontypool United, and then he went to Pontypool originally. He was there when they went into the Premiership. He went from there to Cross Keys and while he was captain they won the Swalec Cup and were finalists in the British-Irish Cup.

While at Cross Keys, Coventry came down for a friendly and wanted him to play for them there. He had a two-year contract but was only up there for a year. He’s come back to his roots in Pontypool now.

I’ve got a daughter who’s 26 and she trained as a hairdresser when she left school but decided after she qualified as a hairdresser, ‘I don’t want to be a hairdresser’.

So she’s now started working in social care as a care assistant and she’s in the re-enablement team. I did my social work later in life and I can see already that’s the way she’s going. She’s my double. She looks like me, her mannerisms are me. We all live in Pontypool. Rob lives with me and [Joanne] lives up the road from me.

I’m very much one for my holidays. I’ve been everywhere. Earlier this year we went to Australia for three weeks. My partner now, Lyndon, lived there when he was young. His mum went over on that Ten Pound Pom (post-war migration) thing in the 1960s when he was five, but they came back when he was nine because she didn’t like it there.

I’ve been with Lyndon for 13 years now. I don’t really have any hobbies – I’ve been going to the gym in the mornings but I can’t go at the moment because I’ve had a knee op – but I like to holiday three times a year if I can.

In Australia in January, we went to Melbourne and Sydney, and then we went to Cairns. We did Hong Kong on the way back. Then we went to Rome.

My favourite place is Sri Lanka. I love and adore Sri Lanka. I’ve been three times. The plan is now to go in March to see the whales.

Seafood is inan abundance – and I love seafood – king prawns and candle prawns I’d never seen before.

I love the culture, I love the people. I go on holiday to relax, not to do a, b and c. I usually have two day trips on my holiday and the rest of the time is spent reading a book. In the evening, I’m not one to go out for entertainment. We’re not there for a rave.

Cairns was our relaxing bit but we went slightly out of season.

We’re now saving for New Zealand in 2016.

We went to Cuba once and we didn’t really enjoy it. We also went to Las Vegas and I’ve been to Disneyland – in 1996, before I met Lyndon.

I’ve just moved up to Pontypool Police Station. I’m usually with the care management team. My role is to support all the teams with continuing health care.”