FAREWELL SARAH COPESTICK

After spending 70 days at IA on placement the time has come to say goodbye! 

Before I go I wanted to talk about what I’ve learnt. I came to IA from Social Services Children and Families’ Team, which as a statutory agency is run very differently from the voluntary organisation of IA. 

Initially, I was worried about what to expect from the team and what they’d expect from me. But I soon relaxed when I met Lorraine and Debbie. Lorraine had a whole fortnight of visits planned for me to shadow her work whilst Debbie was more than keen to show me round the office.

 Following my induction Lorraine quickly set me up with two people to work with. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working closely with both people and learnt so much about advocacy in general. 

I’ve also been given the chance to observe and experience the differences between voluntary agencies and statutory services and have come to realise the strict restrictions statutory services have upon them. 

IA is keen to work to high professional standards, whilst protecting the rights and opinions of those whom it advocates for. It is able to work in partnership with people with learning disabilities and other agencies even when there is disagreement. 

I return to my job as family support worker, with the new knowledge I’ve gained and in the future will work with advocacy services again.

Additionally, I’ve had the opportunity to work with Heather, observing Citizen Advocacy and Sarah on Young Peoples’ Advocacy. This has involved advocacy training where I helped to deliver a training session and heard experiences from Advocates. 

It wouldn’t be possible for me to choose a best moment of my time at IA as there’ve been so many. I’d like to thank all at IA for their support, advice and for making my placement a more enjoyable experience. I wish them all the best for the future.

We also say ‘goodbye’ to Mel Rodwell who completed her 6 week admin (Shaw Trust) placement with us recently. It was a pleasure working with Mel and we hope we widened her experiences and wish her well in the future.

We say ‘hello’ to Kayleigh Cooper, a new Social Work student who starts work with IA on 9 April for 10 weeks on a 30 day placement.

Kayleigh

“I’m really looking forward to my first placement”

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