Anna Murphy has recently joined the Juno Board as a Non-Executive Director. We sat down to chat about what brought her to Juno, her hopes for the future of residential care, and us as an organisation.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your career path so far
I’m a mother of two and live locally on the Wirral. I have worked in children’s services for about ten years. Before that, I worked in learning disability services, mental health services and advocacy services.
I’ve spent the last ten years working with one organisation, supporting its growth around children’s homes and special educational needs schools. I believe that every child, no matter what their starting point in life, should have opportunities for a great, fulfilling life. Some people don’t find themselves in that fortunate position, so we need services to help those children and those families – to have better lives and better educational experiences. The driver throughout my career for me has been these values – I want to help people.
Outside of work, I love spending time with my children and my husband – I have quite a big family, and there’s always something going on – parties, birthdays, get-togethers, I love that. I also really enjoy running (when I get the time).
What has attracted you to Juno?
I saw Juno mentioned on LinkedIn, there was chatter about this new non-profit organisation and I knew Craig, the Chair, many years ago. I was intrigued by how it’s being set up, the values of the organisation and its aims.
I feel that across the sector and children’s services, it’s very congested with lots of providers and Juno seemed to be working to do something different, a values-based approach in terms of outcomes for children. Right away, I felt like that’s something I need to get involved with and see if I can help, with my experience over the past 10 years. I wanted to support the team as a start-up organisation, in a way, support with establishing Juno locally and in the sector, learning from past experience.
What excites you most about working with Juno?
Definitely working to get really good outcomes for local children, help children stay as close to home as possible if they have to go into residential services, and that their time in residential services is as short-lived as possible. I want to make sure their time in residential care is the best it can be and is effective in supporting them to have a better life beyond Juno.
What will be the main challenges for Juno, and how can we overcome them?
I think it’s a difficult time for children’s services across the board. There are lots of children who need support and lots of social issues impacting families. LA`s remain under strain and supporting LA`s across the Liverpool City Region would be something I would like to be involved with. Unfortunately, more children are coming into care, and a challenge for Juno is going to be providing high-quality services and building a good reputation locally. A big part of it is finding the right staff and good leaders – a values-led approach to finding the right people will be crucial, and potentially difficult.
My hope for the future of Juno is that it will provide excellent outcomes for children and an environment where they thrive. I hope that over time, the children we support will come back and share their achievements with us, big and small.
Interested in joining the team? Check out the latest vacancies here, or email us at hello@wearejuno.org to join the mailing list for all upcoming vacancies.