My name is Rhys and I live in Derbyshire. I have been supported by United Response for five and a half years, but now I also work for them, interviewing new people who want to be a support worker.

What good support looks like

The most important thing is that people get to choose what they do and they have the freedom to live a good life.

For example, I live by myself in a bungalow. I’d moved around a lot before between bigger places where lots of people lived, but I really like having my own space now. I love to go to my local pub with my friends (you can see me singing karaoke!), playing darts and being part of a choir that puts on performances. I work when I can – doing odd-jobs, in a bar and also for United Response.

My support worker Patrick helps me with all these things and more. We love doing pranks on people and joking, and Patrick makes life really fun. We once went down on the coach to Wembley to see Chesterfield F.C. play – they lost, but it was a really good day out. I need help to keep my garden looking nice, and with shopping. Patrick also teaches me piano and we sometimes get a take away or have a drink together.

Support worker vacancies

We have lots of fun, but there are some trickier parts to being a support worker. You have to do some paperwork to keep everything organised. Some people need help with personal care or with medication, which I think would be quite hard. And sometimes people don’t behave so well, and it can be hard to know how to solve that.

What happens in a support worker interview

When I’m interviewing support workers, I like to tell them about a part of my life, and ask them about what they would do if they were my support worker. For example, I’ve asked before what they would do if a person they were supporting was offered drugs.

I hope you apply for a support worker job soon. If you’re in my interview, I’ll be there in my suit ready to ask you difficult questions, but also to tell you what a brilliant job it is to be a support worker.

If you’re not sure, I think you should give it a good try and see if it works for you. We’re very friendly and we don’t bite! You can ask me questions, or a manager or another support worker to help you get started.

Oh and one last thing – when you send in your CV, make sure it really is a CV! Someone accidentally sent in a pub menu instead once, which really made me laugh … perhaps that means they should get the job though, if they like pub food that much!

  • Rhys Sanders is Induction Assistant at United Response