Pros
I met some of the amazing people I have ever met working for this company (mostly supported people some of whom still pop in to my head and I have fond memories of, a few staff too - I would like to thank these people as I wouldn't have lasted so long without you all) , and learned so much in my time there. I worked in 3 of their services, all of which is a Recovery Worker (5 yrs) before moving up to Recovery Practitioner in my last service for 3 years. There are development opportunities albeit few and far between, I was lucky!) I was put through my SVQ 3, my CMI Lvl 3 Principles of Management & Leadership award and PDA Health and Social Care Supervision Lvl 7. It's a great job if you like to be ourdoors alot and like to keep active, I would regularly walk 25-30,000 steps a day. There's lots of variety too - you'll never be bored!
Cons
High turnover, unrealistic expectations of staff, no work-life balance , little training for front line Recovery Workers who are expected to shadow meds a couple of times and do an online e-learning module before doing this independently, management will try and hush any incidents and will do anything for an easier life, senior management are non-existent, inadequate lone working protective measures, rotas would be sent out with less than a weeks notice, they were also highly likely to change drastically on the day due to staffing issues, having to write up peoples notes on buses or when walking because there often wasn't time during the support session itself Too many unqualified staff who don't have enough knowledge of the various mental health conditions the people we worked with have (largely schizophrenia, personality disorders, Bi-polar, Schizo-affective disorder though many would also have anxiety and depression, substance misuse issues, be elderly or have a variety of other needs nor the appropriate interventions to use so this very much becomes a maintenance model rather than one of recovery Poor pay for front line staff (there had been a restructure where Assistant Managers got made redundant and they bought in Recovery Practitioners to do the same job for less money). Similarly, Support Workers at the time had their titles changed to Recovery Workers and had their pay frozen. Newly hired Recovery Workers started on a lower salary until they caught up to this rate through annual 1% increments. When you do get put through qualifications (SVQ 3 a requirement so all get put through this (though I know at least 1 or 2 longstanding members of staff on relief contracts hadn't done theirs still after several years) you don't get given time during working hours to do this unless by some miracle you've got through your own days work and then covered sickness or annual leave (this regularly meant people didn't get the support the local authority was being charged for). I stuck it out there as long as I did for the service users and my passion for supporting those with mental health issues, not from loyalty for the company. This job had a severe impact on my mental and physical health - whilst being told I had been successful in getting the Recovery Practitioner role I was quickly told that I didn't get it because of my mental health issues and I wish I wasn't so naïve then to have continued working there after hearing that. After our team being to poorly supported during lockdowns and realising there was nothing more I could do to attempt to improve the service I finally left.