Lisa Collins has recently joined our team to lead our second home, Juno Wallasey as a Registered Manager. Find out more about what attracted her to Juno and what she's most looking forward to in her role.
Tell us a bit about yourself
My name is Lisa Collins and I recently joined Juno to become the Registered Manager of the second Juno home, in Wallasey.
Most recently, I’ve been supporting children and families in a community mental health setting, prior to that I worked in a support manager role for a different residential care service. I also have experience in child and family social work. I did my social work training with the Frontline organisation, so I had lots of opportunities to gain clinical hours and experience supporting families. Before this training, I had around 6 years of experience in Children’s Residential care and as a Registered Manager.
Away from work, I love to read and go hiking, we do that pretty much every weekend – my favourite place to go hiking is North Wales. I have three dogs that keep me busy and four adult children that keep me less busy now that they’re all grown up.
What has attracted you to Juno?
I first came across Juno shortly after completing my social work training, I heard Sophie, the Managing Director, present about the philosophy and how Juno wants to do things differently in the sector I felt that the values really aligned with my own values. The non-profit, community interest element excited me as well, I was hooked and wanted to find out more about the company. What I’ve heard since then has cemented for me that this is how I want to do things, and in my opinion, this is exactly what the sector needs.
How would you describe what Juno is trying to achieve?
The initial consultation with the young people, some of whom now work with us as the Young Leaders, told Juno that they wanted children’s residential care to feel more like home. They wanted to feel loved, be cared for and build relationships with staff that were meaningful and long-lasting. For me, that’s the side that will support long-lasting placements – we know placement breakdown can be really difficult, so we want to develop homes where children feel that they belong, they are being invested in – the home feels like a home and they have a part in the design and décor of the home.
What are you most looking forward to in this role?
I’m excited to be creative and work on doing things differently in the sector. I look forward to recruiting a team that shares these Juno values and will come together to support the young people living at Juno. To me, supporting and developing a team that is providing brilliant child-centred care is the most exciting part of this initial process.
I look forward to creating an environment where young people can feel like they belong and take ownership and pride in their home.
What about the challenges? What do you think will be most difficult?
I suppose trying to find people who share those same values and trying to see what drives the people to do what they do, that will be challenging. It’s a challenging sector to work in, and we want to hire the very best of people to provide the best care. We want Juno to be a great place to work, so we are looking at how we can do that as well – revising shift patterns, supporting staff development and career progression.
What are your hopes for the future of residential care?
I hope there will be more not-for-profit organisations in the sector, people who have a genuine interest in supporting young people and providing care that is child-centred. I hope there will be more organisations in the sector that are in it for the right reasons – providing excellent care and supporting staff.
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.