Geoff's story

Life at Lifeways is a family affair for Geoff

Geoff is the Team Leader for three of our services in Walsall. He started working for the Lifeways Group 13 years ago when he was 26. His mum and sister work for the company as well, and even his brother worked here before he joined the army. Geoff says: "It's a proper family affair - I met my wife here too!"

Geoff has 6 children, and his 13-year-old son is autistic. Geoff says: “I suppose this led me into this line of work, and made me want to learn everything I could to support him.” On starting his new role, Geoff remembers: “I was very quiet and lacked confidence when I first came to the Lifeways Group.”

I have gained a great deal of knowledge and training and this has given me a lot more confidence. I would never have had the self-belief to go after the position of Team Leader if it had not been for the encouragement and mentoring I received from my manager and colleagues.

Geoff went straight into care work from school, but he didn’t have any care qualifications. He has worked incredibly hard and through lots of training now has multiple care qualifications and an NVQ Level 2 in Management, and is currently working towards his Level 3.

Geoff provides support to people in their home and is often out and about in the community with the people he supports. “I’m very hands-on, I love planning and taking part in social activities. I love working with the people we support and would much rather be supporting them to be active than stuck in an office all day.

"There’s a supervisory side of my job and one of my strengths is support planning. I’ve been asked to mentor others with their support plans. My audit scores are really high and it’s really nice to be asked to mentor others. What gets me up on a cold and wet morning is the people I support and my team. I love doing this job and I can’t see myself doing anything else.”