- 0161 510 5200
- enquiries@upwardscaresolutions.com
- Upwards Residential Care Services Wilsons Park, Newton Heath Manchester, M40 8WN
You may be wondering exactly what is involved in being a Residential Support Worker. We have provided a general day of an RSW to give you an idea of what to expect, including the rewards and challenges.
As an RSW, consistency will be evident in the organisation of the day. Timetables, boundaries, expectations; these things will be clear and reliable. Each day it’s your role to provide the structure and repetition that are the safe foundations of a child’s day; a warm, clean home, comfortable clothing, breakfast, school, lunch, dinner, clubs, bath, time to talk, bedtime.
But…every single day you will be faced with new challenges. When a child is filled with anxiety about going into school it your responsibility to coax them out of bed and help them to remember their achievements and abilities. It’s your role to keep the morning positive and change the way that the child feels about facing each new day.
In this short space of time, you will also collected photo frames from the garden after they were thrown out of a bedroom window, you have explained why false eyelashes are not appropriate for school and have to manage not to be drawn into an argument about why peanut butter is not a substitute for toothpaste. You will be told your hair is ugly and they have heard that you make the best pulled pork.
You will have to discuss the difference between a weasel and an otter and will be coaxed into deciding who would win a fight between Spiderman and Thor. You will have explained why some TV shows are only shown after bedtime and must make a mental note that you need to pick up extra bread and been told you know nothing.
Are you able to say?
I am a Residential Support Worker. I am also a friend, a tutor, a therapist, a parent, and a security blanket. I am the sponge that soaks up the fear and squeezes it back out in manageable drips each day. I am the reassurance and the praise.
RSW’s day is filled with housework, some paperwork, making a reward chart, preparing healthy snacks, and organising dinner. The bedrooms are tidied, the washing is put away, family contacts are arranged, and I still manage to find some time to research local swimming lessons for a child.
Chat with the rest of my team, and exchange stories and share advice. Your own personal experience hopefully of residential support work for Upwards Care is that there is nothing else quite like it. So, when you take on the role of an RSW, you truly are a beginner every morning, but by the end of every day you will be a role model, a diplomat, a catalyst for change, and what other job can possibly offer you all of that?