Simon’s rise from volunteer carer to top post
DERBYSHIRE’S adult care chief has told how he rose from being a volunteer carer to being in charge of a £263 million budget used to look after some of the most vulnerable people in the county.
Simon Stevens left school with a handful of O-levels and worked as an unpaid volunteer care worker with little idea of what he wanted to do with his life. But 35 years later he has risen up the ranks to become the county council’s director of adult care.
The 53-year-old started as a volunteer live-in carer, helping a young man who had become disabled after an accident on a farm.
Now, Mr Stevens manages a multimillion-pound budget and is also at the forefront of the work supporting many adults needing care in Derbyshire through the coronavirus pandemic.
He said: “When I left school, I knew that I didn’t want to continue with academic study but had no real idea of what I wanted to be from a career perspective. I decided to do some voluntary work and obtained a threemonth job living in with and supporting a young man who had become physically disabled following an accident on his family farm. “While this was a real baptism of fire for someone who had never been away from home this was the place where I both made a friend for life and got an insight into knowing that social care was the career path that I wanted to follow.”
Mr Stevens, who has been putting in some long days during the pandemic, said his early days as a live-in carer were tough. He said: “That period was the most hard work I had done in my life but also the most satisfying and rewarding and it set me off on my journey.”
He worked part-time as an unqualified social worker while being trained, and in 1999 got a full-time job before doing a post-qualifying award. Mr Stevens moved quickly up the career ladder. In 2008 he began working for Derbyshire as an area manager. The council supported him to study for a high-level management qualification and in 2010 he gained a master’s degree in business. In 2014 that he gained a major promotion, becoming assistant director of adult social care. Last year he became director.
He said: “Social care is one of the most fulfilling careers you can do. The feeling you get from knowing you have helped someone to be as independent and in control of their lives as they can be, whether that is to stay independently in their own home, to make independent daily life choices or just to get out and about more in their community, is second to none.”
He was speaking as a range of jobs are now on offer at the council within the care service.
For more details, visit the county council’s website www.derbyshire.gov.uk/careersincare.