A Day in the Life of...

Lucy - Peterborough Community Warden

My name is Lucy, and I am the community warden for Peterborough. I work Monday to Friday 9am-1pm and the service is expanding in Peterborough with me currently having a waiting list of people wanting to use the service. I have been my role for 18 months and I have a great relationship with all my service users and their families. Having that relationship with families is important because you can work together with the service users to ensure all needs are being met and they’re happy.

My background is in care in the community, and I did 10 years working for the ambulance service as part of the patient transport service.    

The Community Warden role enables me to encourage and support older people to remain confident and safe in their own homes, and to be someone they can turn to when they need any help, support or information.  

My day…

I start by saying morning to my team leader, so she knows I am ready to begin work. I then log into my laptop to check my emails and reply if needed. Then to my phone and I make 2-3 phone calls to service users for a chat, see what their plans are for the day and to make sure they have everything they need. Mostly they will be staying at home today due to the weather being so wet and miserable.

I travel over to the other side of the city to visit my first lady and to have a catch up on what she has been doing and what she has planned for the day. Today is lunch club at the sheltered housing she lives at, so she is looking forward to that, its liver and bacon today and she laughs at me when I pull a face! Dessert sounded better, sticky toffee pudding and custard. She has a few items of shopping she would like me to collect so I take her list and head back to my car. I then make another phone call to check if my second lady I visit that day needs any shopping whilst I am in the supermarket. She gives me her list and I head over to the supermarket.

I park up and make another couple of calls to service user’s and find out their plans. It all differs…. I have one who is heading to town to buy a new hoover, another going to a lunch/friendship group in town and another who is just going to do some jobs at home and then sit with a cup of tea and see if they can find some old films to watch as it’s a cold, miserable and wet day.

I receive a call from one of my service users whilst in the supermarket asking if I could possibly pick up some milk and bread for them as they have run out, I gladly do this.

I do the shopping and deliver to my first lady from this morning and help her to put it all away. She then pays me her weekly fees and her shopping bill. I pick up the newest special buys magazine from the supermarket and she is looking forward to reading that when she’s back from her lunch club.

I then pop to the couple who rang asking for milk and bread and drop this off, have a few minutes chatting about Strictly Come Dancing at their doorstep before heading over to visit another of my gentlemen. We chat about his music and his gardening, and he asks me when I visit next, I wouldn’t mind calling into a post office to get a special envelope to return unused stamps he has, as they will be unusable with new stamps now having a bar code. He then gives me a little demo of the music he has been playing on his keyboard today!

I then make the last of my phone calls to service users and find out what they will be doing for the day. Again, it is all varied and ranges from one going on a lunch date with a friend to Nando’s, to one who is taking her cat to the vet for a check up on her eyes after a course of drops.

I take another phone call from a service user who asks if I could possibly drop in some paracetamol and some fish and chips. I agree, as she only lives 2 streets away from me and I have to pass her home to get to mine.

I visit another of my service users with her shopping and I help her to unpack and put it away. I then sit with her to book her hospital transport for an appointment she’s received. She tells me she has her hairdresser coming next week and this is the first time she has had hair done since she came out of hospital in September. She is really looking forward to it.

I call in to the chip shop, and shop next door, to pick up my last service user’s order and head over there. She isn’t feeling too good today hence why she asked for fish and chips, so she doesn’t have to worry about cooking later. We have a chat about the hedgehogs she has living in her hedgehog house in the garden, and I make her a coffee. She is very grateful for me dropping her items in.

That is the end of my day and I have called, spoken to, and visited 12 service users and travelled 15 miles around the city.