A celebration of three decades working in social care

This #GoodNewsFriday we hear from Phil Orton about his 30-year career in social care - including his recent appointment to Chief People Officer at Making Space, and what he’s enjoyed most about working in care all these years.

Phil’s parents were both nurses at a hospital for people with a learning disability. Phil started volunteering at the hospital when he was 12, so it may not be a surprise that he ended up working in health and social care too – though he says as a 12-year-old he was more likely to dream of becoming Han Solo when he grew up.

School wasn’t the best environment for Phil, he couldn’t wait to leave at age 16 and left with few GCSEs. He considered a career as a chef, and after leaving school he worked in a few hospitality roles, but he wasn’t keen on the hours chefs had to work and decided this wouldn’t be right for him.

Instead, he turned back to his roots in health and social care and started as an apprentice undertaking a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) Level 2 in care and working at a nursing home for older people.

Following that he worked in a care home as a care assistant, before being promoted to care supervisor at 19. From that point Phil continued to progress in his career undertaking his NVQ Level 3 and Level 4 and successfully gaining a registered manager role while still in his early 20s.

In that role Phil also discovered his passion for training – another interest he had in common with his Dad who had also been a training manager at the hospital where he worked. Pursuing this interest Phil took on a training manager role with CLS Care Services. Branching out from training he also started covering elements of recruitment and HR, ultimately progressing to become the organisation’s group HR manager. In this role Phil worked on the development of a new brand for the organisation called Belong and eventually became the Head of People for Belong. In total he worked at the organisation for 26 years, and says his success with developing the Belong brand was a highlight of his career.

While working at Belong the organisation also supported him time to complete a Masters degree in management, and sponsored his final year of the degree. They also supported him in completing his Chartered Institute of Personal Development (CIPD) qualification.

Following more than two decades with the organisation, Phil moved to Making Space in 2017 as an executive director of HR, and this April his role was redeveloped to be Chief People Officer.

It’s a fitting title for Phil as he says it’s the people he’s met and relationships he’s built along the way that has been the best thing about working in social care.

He says:

Share your good news stories with us by emailing marketing@skillsforcare.org.uk

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