Fiora Test Post

It’s just my, okay, hopefully, because I’m working from my, from the hotspot, you know, my phone hotspot, because I’m on my old house, I’m on a kind of an empty house, no internet, so hopefully this will work. Okay, so, well, I guess let’s start then talking about your background. What did you used to do before coming to Artvo? Yes, I was a mental health nurse, and I used to work with a colleague of mine in a previous ward, so I specialised in sort of mother and baby mental health postpartum, and Sophia Hammond, who’s a CPL, senior CPL now, she’s the one that told me about the role.

 

At the time, it was an HP role, and I was pretty burnt out, as most people that come from the NHS, so after about 10 years of service, I said, okay, this sounds good, you get every weekend off, how hard can it be? Let’s just take a chance, and I didn’t know anything about this before I came. He persuaded me to come over, and it went from there. Oh, wow, that’s great.

 

I love your background. Yeah, it just really resonates with me, because it’s just like having had, like, two kids so close together during pandemic, so… Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there was nothing major, but it’s just, like, it’s big things, isn’t it? And then, like, also, I know how important it is to have people to help you with your mental health around this time, isn’t it? I love my job.

 

I did love my job in doing mental health, and the thing is, when you work with women and babies, it’s the side of mental health where you get them better. It’s not like other areas. If you work, say, with substance abuse and things like that, that can take many years, but a lot of the time, you saw success stories sort of turn around.

 

I think the burnout just came from sort of short staff, long hours, nights, and things like that, not actually the job. It was a super interesting job, and I got a diploma in postpartum psychosis care and things like that, so it was really good. Yeah, no, yeah, I can imagine.

 

I always think, like, I have a couple of friends there. One is a nurse, the other one, he works in, like, social care, but, like, still inside hospital, and the doctors are just, like, the hours, the type of work, isn’t it? It’s just so… Yeah, yeah. I can imagine how… Yeah, for sure, yeah.

 

Yeah. It’s a bit more work-life balance. Exactly, yeah, and we know how important that is, isn’t it? Especially, like, as you’re progressing in life and everything, because when you’re younger, you do lots, and, yeah, you don’t feel, like, how that impacts you, isn’t it, as you do later on.

 

So, yeah, so then, so, yeah, so you learned about the job from a friend of yours, and then was they already at ADVO, or were they… So, you learned about the job… Yeah, so it was a different name, actually. So, before we were ADVO, we had a different name, so we were sort of called Integrated Health Services, so when I joined, it’s coming up to sort of nine and a half years now, we were something else, and then we rebranded to ADVO, so it was quite interesting, I got to see that transition. So, yeah, I mean, I did really well really quickly.

 

I think I’ve got quite an analytical mind anyway, and I’m also someone who, I’m not very patient, so I like to learn very quickly. So, when they put me in clinic, obviously, this is pre-COVID, so at the time we went to clinic, and I got to be face-to-face with very experienced assessors, and I was hounding them, you know, like a new recruit. Please, can you show me, please? They were probably getting very annoyed with me, like, why are you in our office again? But eventually, those colleagues became really good friends, and I was just, I just wanted to learn.

 

So, you know, being just on telephone calls now is very different to how it was then. You could sort of just sneak into the office, see how they’re doing it. If you didn’t have an assessment, or you’d finished up, you could maybe go in and see someone else writing up, see how they did it.

 

So, I wanted to learn very, very quickly. I was quite impatient about it, and quite an analytical mind, which isn’t always a good thing, because you can’t turn it off when you want to. But, yeah, so that’s how I got good very quickly, and it’s a funny story, actually.

 

I don’t know how much you want me to say now. You want to ask some more questions? I can tell you. No, you know, feel free to.

 

Yeah, you’re fine, especially because I’m not going to be on any of this, so I can pick and grab things from anywhere. So, if things come to you, just go for it. Yes, it’s a funny story about how I started.

 

So, the CPR Sophia, she referred me over. I came over as an HPE, and then I got really, really good really quickly, and then I sort of got too good in a way, and I was taking a lot of extra overtimes and things like that, and then I had a dip. So, I experienced what a lot of the HPEs are experiencing sometimes when sort of quality falls or where the job can get very intense at times.

 

So, I had a bit of a dip, and then I had to go on a small pathway and things like that. It was called QSAP at the time, and it really shocked me because I got very good really quickly, and this was now six months in the role. I was getting an influx of sort of a particular type of condition, say learning impairments, and I was really struggling with it because I didn’t have much experience in that field, and I had a bit of a blip.

 

So, I had to sort of work my way up from the bottom, but the blip for me was a real good learning period because when I went down like that, it forced me to slow down and sort of learn the role again from scratch and build myself up to have even better quality. So, I was actually better that time when I failed and had to bring myself back up again than I was when I was just, I got really good really, really quickly because it was just a sort of a natural process. So, I had a blip, went a bit downhill because I was taking on too many assessments over time and things like that, a bit overworked, and then I got my quality back up again, and a year into the role, my friend actually went on maternity.

 

So, I then applied for her role as a CPL. So, she got me in the job, and then I sort of took her job. So, I did get that manager role.

 

So, it just shows that the blipping quality doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t going to be a good ending at the end of it, which is why I like to share my story because I started good. I got a little bit of poor quality due to a lot of assessment, and then I got the manager role. So, that didn’t affect me getting the manager role because I’d worked so hard, and they saw the progression of how hard I’d worked to get that role.

 

So, I got the CPL role, and she went on maternity, and I was thinking, what’s going to happen when she comes back? You know, I’m thinking this, but anyway, I did the manager role, and bearing in mind that I’d been in the NHS, my NHS ward for seven years, and they’d never given me any progression opportunities. Nobody on that ward really got any, but within a year, I was already now a manager. So, the progression opportunities in this role are like no other job that I’ve had previous to this.

 

It’s just excellent. It’s a really impressive level. So, I got that, and then luckily, when she came back from maternity, the training role became open.

 

So, she got her job back, and then I went into the training role because, funnily enough, I think I was a terrible manager in terms of operationally. I was a really good training manager, but I was terrible at organising things like, have we checked the fire alarms are working every week? Have we checked this is working? And also, I’m a bit of a pushover, and I think when people said, oh, I’m just going to be late today, or I’m not coming in, I’ll get to that later. I wasn’t particularly strict, and those operational technical skills that you do need.

 

So, I think I wasn’t that good as a manager, but I was good at the training part. So, I actually ended up going all around the country training people on stage three. So, that was how I got into the training role because I was quite successful at that.

 

So, then I got the training role, thankfully, and then my friend got her job back. So, that was good. You all work hard for everyone, isn’t it? Work hard, yeah.

 

Yeah, the management, like, you always think like, oh, most people think, oh, that’s like the goal, but it’s not for everybody, isn’t it? I don’t think I would be a good manager myself, either. No, it isn’t. And yeah, well, so it’s great because I wanted to get to the training a bit because I think one of the pillars of the content is, like, with tips and, like, the content for people that are starting out.

 

And again, it will be a great opportunity for me to really understand as well, because I hear a lot of the stage three, and I think I have some idea, but it would be great if you can explain for us, like, and then, yes, so that would be, yeah, I think a great thing to feature, isn’t it, the training? Yeah, so I basically do the initial induction training. I am involved sometimes in training for more advanced assessors. If they’ve got particular concerns in an area, I can help with that as well, and I do have sort of resources, but my main role is the induction training.

 

So, I get them when they’re sort of newborn to PIP. They have no idea about this world, and then I have to, over the course of five weeks, train them up to sort of be ready for the next stages to go out and do assessments for the public. So, it is quite an intense course.

 

It’s a five-week course, and that comprises of e-learning, some practise role play with some actors. We have had a couple of semi-famous, maybe BC-lister actors as well, which has been quite nice. Someone from Harry Potter and EastEnders, so that was quite nice.

 

So, they get to do role play with the actors, and then written work as well. So, hopefully by the time the end of the five weeks is over, they’d have had experience in practise assessment, writing an assessment, learning the whole role. And bearing in mind, when I did the training to become an HP, it was only a two-week course.

 

We had to sort of learn all this in two weeks, but thankfully that has now been spread over sort of a five-week period. So, you’ve got enough space and time to do reflections and learn the role and really practise it before you go out. So, I have to get them through sort of this journey.

 

I’m the main trainer. We are now training up other people as well, mentors, to be able to support the training as well, because the training courses are getting bigger and bigger. So, we do actually need some more people to sort of support this.

 

And I think I’ve done training now for around seven years. So, the experience in it, I’ve always had a natural way with people. I think that’s the skill that you need for training.

 

I think anyone can learn content and read the training material, but to be able to teach it to someone who knows absolutely nothing and then manage different personalities and then learn how to adapt that communication and teaching to two different personalities, two different ways of learning. I think that’s a skill that I’ve picked up along the way, but it helps that I was already someone who can sort of speak to anyone, engage with anyone. And historically, I’ve had loads of different jobs, even before I became a nurse, working with sort of learning difficulties as a carer, as a support worker.

 

So, I’ve had to be sort of a people person and been in different contexts with different types of people. So, that’s helped me both as an HP and with training, managing different personalities, different styles of learning, really. Yeah, definitely.

 

Yeah. It’s another thing that’s not for everyone, isn’t it, teaching? Yeah. Sure, it is.

 

Just having the knowledge yourself doesn’t mean that you will be able to transfer that to other people, not at all. And so, at the end of these five weeks, then they go, they move on straight into like assessing already claimed or how, because there’s quite, I always hear about stage two, stage three. Did I hear stage five at some point or am I going too far? Because I know that, yeah.

 

So, what is the, what does the whole training involve from the moment you, let’s say you applied and you’ve been selected and then like you have this five-week course? Is that the first, because you said they were like the newborns of the, isn’t it? So, then after that, so how is the whole, the whole training like divided and you can explain in a few words as well. So, there’s quite a lot of steps to the training. So, you go through the onboarding process when you apply and you get to speak to lovely ladies such as Lisa Moore, who will speak to you about sort of what to expect in training, checking on if you need anything.

 

So, right from the beginning, we’ve set up a journey to have a really good experience for somebody. You also get in touch with the recruitment team as well and they support you through all the processes. And then stage one is actually the induction day.

 

So, we do meet people face-to-face. It’s in our Canterbury assessment. It used to be in Bristol and now we’re in Canterbury.

 

Because although we recognise that most of the course is done digitally by teams, we still want that face-to-face aspect, at least on one of the days. So, we do that as part of the induction sort of stage one period where we meet them face-to-face, tell them about the company, they get to potentially meet other managers, they get to see what communications does, what people team do and how everyone sort of works together and is involved in the business. So, that’s a nice icebreaker really that we’ve all met face-to-face before we then move on to MS Teams.

 

Because when you’re just on MS Teams, I think you can’t build that rapport the same way as you can if you feel that you know someone and you’ve met them. So, that’s the first period. Stage two is my part.

 

I’m also involved in the induction as well. Five weeks with myself learning how to be an HP. And then there’s stage three where you’re still supported by a mentor but you’re actually let loose on real claimants and see how you handle that, how your communication is, how to do real assessments.

 

So, that’s the next part, my bit, if you see what I mean. Then you have stage four where you do assessments on your own. This is sort of the approval period.

 

And once you’ve got a certain amount of grades in stage four, you move on to stage five. And that’s your last competency to see if you’re able to do sort of a complex case, mental health, a more simpler case, a physical case, and then maybe a mixed case, somebody that has multiple conditions. And once you’ve completed all those competencies, and the great thing is you’re supported through all this time.

 

This isn’t a role where you start and then the manager just lets you get on with it a couple of days after you start, because I’ve had that with previous roles. When I’ve worked on the ward, the managers are sick maybe or we’re short staffed and you have to get thrown in at the deep end. This is a slow progression, supportive role until you get to stage five, which is quite a few months into the role.

 

And then you’re an approved assessor if you pass all of the competencies on all stages. Right, and now I have a curiosity for me. So how is it like on a stage four when they go and do their assessments? How do you observe it? Because I met, is it still like, there’s actually another question.

 

So how much of it like is done remotely like nowadays? And if we still do like a classic, someone sitting in the room and the claimant comes, is there a thing that still happens or not at all? Even when you work from the office, you’re doing on the phone, how does he? Yeah, so I think there is an element of face-to-face assessments being started. Obviously, it’s quite a slow progression and back into it after COVID because of all the regulations and things that were in place. So we are starting to do face-to-face.

 

But even if we do telephone assessments, just meeting at the office is creating that space I mentioned earlier in the interview where you can learn from other people, speak to the rest of your team, have access face-to-face with your CPL. Because sometimes it’s just some things online that are harder to learn than when you can actually show someone in person. Some people are fine learning online, but some people need that visual, do it for them in front of them, and then they can learn from that way.

 

So that helps. So they are left alone in stage four to do assessments on their own. So no one is maybe listening in.

 

But if there’s any concerns of quality or any challenges that that person is having, that particular HP, then that person will pull up some reports and do some extra training sessions. So the training doesn’t really end. There’s still lots of drop-in sessions and training sessions for everybody to have access to continuously.

 

So you might be struggling with mental health cases or you might be struggling with learning impairments or complex physical conditions. And then your mentor or your CPL, because you actually go into an academy space first with CPLs that are specialised in helping you from the beginning get to a more advanced assessor. So that’s all they do in the academy.

 

They just work with the new people. So you’re not mixed in with people that are more advanced. So the academy space is a specialist area for you to get support as a newbie.

 

And they know how to work with newbies and support them with any issues. So if you’re having any concerns in any particular area, they’ll put on training to support you with that or request you do some e-learning or maybe face-to-face. They’ll discuss that case with you or listen into a case, check your report, and give you some advice on that.

 

So the academy is like a specific kind of sort of stage at the beginning then? It’s not like the whole training? No, stage four. Yeah, you go into the academy space. Well, really and truly, stage three, stage four, stage five is academy space until you’re a completely approved assessor.

 

And then you’re ready to sort of move on to a CPL that will take you on once you’re an advanced assessor, once you’ve got through the training part. Okay. And sorry, it’s a silly question, but you mentioned a few times HP.

 

Disability analyst or health professional. So DA, HP is sort of the abbreviated terminology we use for disability analysts. So either they’re DAs or HP, so that’s what we call them.

 

Okay, okay. So yeah, I was trying to think of words. Oh gosh, all right.

 

I don’t want to extend this. I can see we already, I was just like, you’re right. Okay, good.

 

Okay, lovely. Yes, the training was something I wanted to, oh yeah, can you kind of tell us about a typical day in the life of, I mean, we know we’re going to be doing content separately for this, but just like in a few words, what would a day involve at work? Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

 

So a typical day for myself as a trainer would include logging in online in the morning and then meeting the new trainees. And then we go through how they are first. So we always keep it nice and informal to begin with, checking in on everybody.

 

I like to create that environment so people feel comfortable to speak about any challenges they’re having or any concerns. And we want to make it sort of a team, sort of, I’d say informal kind of group, if you see what I mean. So everybody gets to know each other, more like a friend group.

 

And then sometimes it’s e-learning. So sometimes I’ll go off and do lots of modules on e-learning. And then while they’re doing e-learning, I’ve usually got some marking to do.

 

So I’ll go and do my teacher stuff and start marking. And then we’ll meet in the afternoon and do some group work things. So I like to mix things up.

 

So if they’ve had half a day of e-learning, then in the afternoon, we want to mix it up and get them more active and things like that. So yeah, my day comprises of just supporting them really, creating good rapport, managing a good group setting, getting them to engage with each other, putting them in groups so they can start to build relationships between them as well and support them because they all started at the same point. And then those relationships carry on and they can support each other in other stages.

 

A lot of marking, lots of marking as a trainer. And then, yeah, just spending time with people, getting to know people and giving them feedback and helping them progress. That’s what a typical day looks like for me.

 

Yeah, great. And do you have, I know a lot of skills are involved of working as a functional assessor as in lots of, mainly most jobs, isn’t it? But like, can you select like three top skills that you think a person should have or develop to work as a functional assessor? Yeah, so I think my top three skills, my advice, if you want to be a functional assessor is you have to be a good communicator. And that doesn’t just involve being able to speak to people, being able to listen and adapt your communication to any circumstances, any type of personalities, any situation.

 

So somebody who’s a good communicator. Also being somebody who has insight, so reflective person, somebody who can take on feedback and learn from that feedback. So if you’re sort of a defensive person and you don’t like feedback, then you probably won’t do as well in this role because it’s a role based on feedback and that’s how you learn.

 

And then I think the third skill, maybe like I said earlier, just having an analytical brain, but more so just being open. If you’re an open person willing to learn, learn something new, completely different to anything maybe you’ve ever done before, you’ll run very smoothly throughout this role. So that’s what I was in the beginning.

 

I didn’t have any expectations. I was very open to take on anything that they’re going to teach me and learn something new, accepted the feedback and then use communication skills to be able to do the assessment. So I think those three skills will do very well in this role.

 

Great, and then you mentioned earlier, and I know about it already, so 90 years of that and you like talk a bit about like if you have like a couple of great moments that you think is is worth mentioning. Yeah, so nine years at ADVO, how have I survived? No, I’m just kidding. It’s been great.

 

It’s been an amazing experience. I think what has made me laugh so long is the people that work here. I’ve made a lot of friendships here and one thing I really like about ADVO is there’s no sort of hierarchical position in terms of the characters that work here.

 

So the CEO, for example, I don’t know the current CEO, but the previous CEO, you know, she sent me a Christmas card and I’ve spoken to her in person multiple times. And then we’ve got Adam Jarvis as well. He’s sort of in the senior teams and he’s very approachable.

 

And I really liked that about this, that everyone was approachable and friendly and wanting to build a relationship with each other. Previous jobs I was in, it’s like this is the nurse in charge and this is the head of nursing and there wasn’t any relationship between us. It was more of a you were very scared when the head of nursing came in and it was very hierarchical and the characteristics of that kind of senior fear management type of role.

 

And we didn’t have any of that here. Everyone was super friendly and super nice and I’d come from a slightly toxic ward previously. So I was suspicious in the beginning.

 

I was like, everybody is really nice. What’s the catch here? But everyone remained really nice and it was great. I love doing face-to-face meetings.

 

I think that also kept me in the role as well. Lots of face-to-face meals and meetings where everyone was just themselves. You didn’t ever feel like, oh, I’m sitting next to a senior manager.

 

I can’t be myself. Everyone is themselves and making jokes and a sort of really lovely people. So I think that was really impressive to me and I had some enjoyable things.

 

The Christmas parties that we used to do pre-COVID, they were pretty fun. I saw a few senior managers that I will not name trying to do some rap. I’ve seen some very bad dancing skills and rap skills from some senior managers who I will not name.

 

They shall remain unnamed. But again, yeah, that all adds to the humorous side of the role. I think to keep anyone in a role, a job as long as I’ve been in, you have to have these things.

 

You have to like the way you work, the people that you’re working with. There has to be some comedy, some humour, as well as all the seriousness that we sort of have to deal with in the professional side of work as well. That’s what kept me here so long.

 

Definitely. Yeah, that’s great. And I actually, I felt the same.

 

Well, it’s exactly one month today that I started. And I kind of… Sorry? It’s the anniversary. One month.

 

Oh, yeah. One month. Eight years ago.

 

Yeah. Just eight years ago. But yeah, I had exactly the same kind of feeling, isn’t it? And that definitely helps, isn’t it? And let me have a look.

 

I wrote down here, the biggest challenge, would you say, was that moment that you had a little dip and then you came back? Because that’s very interesting as well, isn’t it? Yeah. Sometimes you just learn, learn, learn and do, do, do, do. But I think it’s important as well to have a moment and let things settle and then think about what you’re learning and how you apply.

 

So, would you say that was your biggest challenge or can you think of something else? Yeah. So, I wouldn’t say my biggest challenge was actually me having a dip. I do think it’s important to share that I had a dip as well, because everybody does experience that.

 

There hasn’t been anybody that I’ve ever met, even people that are extremely good assessors now, probably had a dip at some point as well to be able to get to where they are. But I think my biggest challenge was when I was teaching people on approval and they didn’t get approved. I think that was my biggest challenge.

 

I sort of almost cared about the people I was training journey more than I cared about my own journey, because I knew I’ve got a dip, I’m responsible for getting myself out of it. But I’ve definitely been heartbroken probably one or two times where I’ve put an extreme amount of effort in trying to get somebody approved, but it just wasn’t the role for them. And seeing them be upset and leave the role, I think that’s been the biggest challenge.

 

But with time, you learn to accept those things and grow with it, that you do your best. As long as I’m satisfied, I’ve done my best in terms of training them, giving them all the resources and sort of put it in their hands, their sort of responsibility to do it, then you can accept that it’s not going to be for everyone. And luckily, that’s just a fair few.