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Typical Week
Monday
Mondays are quite busy being the
start of the week, with policies
needing to be checked, updated and
forwarded to the relevant people
where necessary to keep them
informed. I am part of the
Information Strategy Group which
establishes how information should
be stored and managed at the
Council – so this meeting was
attended on Monday.
Tuesday
I really enjoy my Tuesdays as it is my
1 day I spend studying for a postgraduate
course in management
studies which is being sponsored by
the Social Services.
Wednesday
I am also responsible for identifying
improvement areas for services and I
have spent Wednesday as a coordinator
for Social Services
Occupational Therapy and Sensory
Impairment Team which were
assessed by two service managers.
This event takes a lot of pre-planning.
Iftar was opened at a Turkish
restaurant in North London with
friends, followed by Teravi prayers.
Thursday
Meeting with Cabinet Member for
Health Social Care took place to
determine what would be placed in
her information bulletin (which I
write) which is sent to all Cabinet
members as well as being placed on
the Council’s internal and external
website.
Friday
End of the working week for
me…whoopee! But this day is spent
tying up lose ends, chasing people
for outstanding areas and submissions
for a particular documents.
Friday Iftar is usually quite special in
our household as relatives/friends
are called round our house for a
crowded yet entertaining Iftar and
religious talks/sessions afterwards.
Weekends
Usually spent helping cleaning the
house and prepare for Iftar. Sundays
are a lot calmer which gives me the
opportunity to go shopping – every
girls favourite topic!
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  My Background In terms of background, I did not travel
to UK in my latter years but was
actually born and raised in the UK,
which funnily enough has made me
more patriotic about Turkey than if I
was to have been born and raised there
(I think family influences has had a
great part to play in that element!).
I have pretty much had a British
Education so Primary School,
Secondary School, College and then
University. Whilst at University I studied
International Business and enjoyed
it thoroughly, especially the international
dimension of marketing, economics,
management – it definitely
makes it more interesting than just
looking at ‘business’ from a UK perspective,
as well as being able to relate
the theories to my own and family
experiences in Istanbul and in London.
When I left University, I was quite fortunate
in that I did not go through a
series of jobs before I found a suitable
position. After two attempts I found a
job I enjoyed and an organisation I
enjoyed working for…this was my role
as a Policy and Planning Officer for the
London Borough of Croydon.
My Job As previously stated I am Policy and
Planning Officer for a London
Borough. This basically means that I am responsible for implementing
(where applicable) and monitoring
new guidance/policy/legislation that
affects Social and Health Care.
My role is quite broad in where necessary,
my projects/tasks may involve
working for strategic divisional directors,
cabinet members or even
Members of Parliament. My work
involves me maintaining a close relationship
with national organisations
such as the Department of Health,
Commission for Social Care Inspection
and the Audit Commission. For example
I have recently responded to the
Department of Health on behalf of
Croydon Social Services in regard to a
consultation about the Adult Social
Care Green Paper ; Wellbeing, Choice
and Independence. In this exercise I
had to communicate Croydon’s view on
how the new requirements should be
adapted for local authorities, which
will be totally changing the service provision
that local authorities provide to
Adults all over the country. I have also
been responsible for assessing services
to identify gaps in service delivery for
improvement, which is part of the
Departments established drive for continually
improving its services and I will
be producing Croydons Social Services
Business Plan 2006/07 which be a great
challenge for me!
My Work Environment and Training Croydon is London’s largest borough in
terms of size and population, therefore
making its local authority quite large
also. The Council in total has 10,000
employees, but I work within Social
Services which has almost 1400 staff. I
really do enjoy working for Croydon as
the Councils ‘can do’ attitude, innovative
strategies and the boroughs diversity
and richness in culture teaches me
something new everyday!
Worst Bits I do not have any real bad bits within
my role.
Best Bits The best part of my job is seeing things
being developed and then implemented
across the borough…so what starts
off as an idea ends up to be a new service/
project/initiative/resource being
delivered to the both service users and
the residents of Croydon.
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