Name: Claire McDonald
Job: Health visitor
Salary: £16,000
(three days a week)
Ten years ago Claire McDonald had a steady and routine job as a matron in a private nursing home. Her days followed a set pattern: caring for patients, sorting out their medication and drawing up staff rotas.
Today her life centres around children and is anything but predictable as she juggles her job tackling child poverty with the demands of family life.
For the last seven months, the 35-year-old health visitor has been working for a Sure Start project in Pinehurst and Penhill, a run-down sprawling council estate on the outskirts of Swindon, home to hundreds of unemployed lone parents.
"Many of the women feel isolated. The estate lies two miles from the centre of town, and has no parks where children can play and parents can meet," says McDonald.
Working out of a community centre alongside social workers, midwives, playgroup leaders, and a speech therapist, she is part of a 17-strong multi-disciplinary team responsible for setting up support networks for families with young children in the area. According to McDonald, this approach has been immensely beneficial for families who now have a single point of access. It also avoids duplication of services.
McDonald describes her work as fascinating and says no two days are the same. "We've managed to set up a talk and toys group where women and children can come together, a post-natal depression group and a Young Mums' club," she says.
Although the government-funded project has only been going seven months, staff have already reached more than 25% of local children aged under four. McDonald switched jobs as a health visitor attached to a doctor's practice, but her employer is still Swindon and Wiltshire Primary Care Health Trust. It has a service agreement with the Swindon primary care trust which oversees the project. She admits there have been teething problems. "Staff have different sets of work ethics, and in many ways we are still feeling our way," says McDonald.
For 28-year-old Sky Lewis and her three children, Katrina, nine, Jake, two and half, and Chelsea, seven months, Sure Start has been a life-saver. "I felt as if I was going mad after I had Chelsea - but then I went to the postnatal group and I was told everything I felt was normal. I've now made lots of friends and look forward to meeting them each week."
