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Markel 3rd Sector Care Awards
CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE IN MAKING A DIFFERENCE Gabby Machell won the Making a Difference Award in the Markel 3rd Sector Care Awards 2019. Here, she shares her story.
I joined Westminster Society for People with Learning Disabilities as a part-time support worker over 30 years ago. In 2007, I was appointed Chief Executive. We currently operate from Central London and employ over 500 staff. We provide services in a number of London boroughs in a variety of settings which include a specialist nursery, family support, short breaks, registered care and supported living. We provide support to children and adults with a range of needs and disabilities which includes people with profound and multiple disabilities and autism. On thinking about the Society as it is today, things are in many ways different from when I first started working back in the late 1980s. However, it is clear to me that the principles are fundamentally the same – we exist to make dreams a reality and provide the best life opportunities we can. What is central to this is our understanding that every life has value and every interaction we have with a person with a learning disability can make a profound and positive difference to their lives.
MY JOURNEY In writing this article, I have been given the opportunity to reflect on my journey from Nurse to Support Worker to Chief Executive. After qualifying as a Registered General Nurse in 1986, I worked on a surgical ward in a busy London hospital. I loved nursing but I wanted more. I didn’t know what the ‘more’ was until I saw an advert for a part-time support worker based in Westminster. I had worked in Westminster a 42
CMM November 2020
few years before, so I knew the area well and something about the advert intrigued me. I had a cousin with Downs Syndrome, and as part of my nursing training I had worked with some people with profound disabilities, but this job was something different. I applied, got the job and my life has never been the same since. At the time, hospitals out in the countryside were closing. These hospitals were the original asylums and people with learning disabilities were coming home, back to their families, back to the places where they were born and, for many, to a life they had never known. Care in the community was happening and we were at the forefront of this pioneering initiative sweeping across the country. My new job involved working within a small staff team along with social workers and health professionals to support this group of older learning disabled people to begin to understand the world around them, a world which had moved on without them, a world where they were feared and misunderstood, a world which was filled with the most amazing opportunities which were there for the taking. We were working to make dreams a reality. It wasn’t easy and there were many challenges, but we were making a difference. I knew then that I had made the right decision to change my career. I knew that I could be part of something great and I knew that the most incredible people had entered my life. As a part-time care assistant, I began to understand what it really meant to value people for who they are. It now seems incredible that, over 30 years
