Meet the Team: Recruitment Assistant Team Manager, Andy Turner
In the first of a new series, we get to know the team at Foster with Bucks. In this first episode, we meet Andy Turner, who is the Assistant Team Manager in the Recruitment Team.
Andy, tell us a bit about yourself...
My name is Andy Turner. I have a twin brother, (rarer, di-zygotic, so non-identical) and an older brother, but no sisters. At Grammar School we were known by surname and initials, so Turner P.J. became ‘Puj’, D.M. became ‘Dimmo’ and A.G. became ‘Aggro’. I came off best I think! When I joined the R.A.F., ‘Aggro’ evolved into ‘Melon’, by a long and not very interesting route! I have two boys from my first marriage, Laurence, aged 33 and Michael, who is 36. I was a trainee Pilot in the Royal Air Force for 3 and a half years, before entering Social Work. I got my Wings on the supersonic jet trainer, the Bae Hawk, in 1981. I have won NODA awards for Amateur Dramatics.
I am the Assistant Team Manager for Fostering Recruitment, leading the Fostering Recruitment Team of Buckinghamshire’s Children’s Social Care, on Floor 3 of County Hall.
Describe your job in three words.
Best job going
Talk me through your career to this point.
This year is my 40th year in Social Work. I started in Salters Observation and Assessment Centre in Glinton, Peterborough, on 21st July 1982, as a Residential Child Care Officer, earning £4,250 a year. When I qualified in 1987, my qualification, CSS, (Certificate in Social Service), was given parity with CQSW, the field social work qualification, which got me a job in the Family Resource Unit in Newport, Isle of Wight. This was a residential unit that accepted teenagers Monday to Friday, and did intensive family work, including formal Family Therapy, and returned the young person home as soon as possible. It is the only preventative work I have ever done, and was hugely successful. In 1991 I joined Bedfordshire County Council as a Family Placement Social Worker, doing Fostering and Adoption work. My Adoption stories are my favourites! In 1994 I became the Under 8s Team Manager, leading a team who inspected Child Minders, Pre Schools, Playschemes and Day Nurseries. In 2001 the nation’s Under 8s Teams were all transferred into Ofsted Early Years. I was working in the Policy Division of Ofsted Early Years in Alexandra House in London, on 11th September 2001, when the Twin Towers went down. Over the next few years I managed teams of Inspectors in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. I took early retirement from the Civil Service in 2009, and had 10 months off work. I married Sue, my partner of 10 years, in one of our favourite places, the Petwood Hotel in Woodhall Spa, Lincs. We then had 2 weeks in Mauritius for our honeymoon. Shortly afterwards, the big cheque from Ofsted ran out and I had to go back to work! I was Deputy Manager at a large, Action For Children, Sure Start Children’s Centre in Milton Keynes, for a year. I was put in charge of preparing for the Ofsted Inspection, (what a surprise), and was very relieved when we were judged to be ‘Good’! After a year, that post was made redundant, so I got another job with Action For Children, managing 3 Sure Start Children’s Centres, in Central Bedfordshire. That post was made redundant a year later, so I got a job as a Supervising Social Worker, in an IFA in Milton Keynes, for 5 and a half years, before joining Buckinghamshire County Council in 2018.
What’s the coolest thing you’re working on right now?
A 1/72 scale model of Guy Gibson’s Lancaster.
What is the best thing about working for Bucks?
The people! This is the happiest team I have ever managed, everyone is really motivated and doing exactly the job they want to, (which wasn’t the case in Ofsted Early Years!) and although I say so myself, we are good at what we do. (‘Team of the Year’ in Buckinghamshire County Council’s final ‘Work Place Heroes Awards’, 2020). Also, the foster carers are brilliant! It was a lovely surprise to join a local authority where the foster carers’ morale was so high, because they thoroughly appreciated the quality of the support they received and the quality of the training on offer. (Not all local authority foster carers are like that. I could tell you some stories!).
What are the main challenges of being an ATM for Bucks?
Counteracting the effects of Covid and the war in Ukraine.
What are your top 3:
Books? ‘Captain Correlli’s Mandolin’, Louis De Bernier; ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, Hunter S. Thompson; and ‘Illusions’, Rich Bach.
Movies or TV Shows? ‘The Young Ones’; ‘2001, A Space Odyssey’; and ‘Tom & Jerry’.
Bands: Roxy Music, U2, MUSE, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Queen, Be Bop Deluxe, Smoke Fairies, Pink Floyd, Yes, (I could go on!).
If you could swap places with anyone – alive or dead – who would it be?
Guy Gibson.
What’s in your coffee?
Nothing! Don’t drink it! (nor tea).
What, or who, are you a ‘closet’ fan of? The more embarrassing, the better!
Err… ‘Dressing up’! (Having said that, I am still ‘Andy’ at weekends)