Giggle n Grow support early years children and babies through music, movement and literacy. Through music and stories we support children to develop social skills, balance, coordination, focus, rhythm, rhyme and literacy skills. We provide opportunities for new parents and carers to build confidence when interacting with their young children and to build networks of support in their local community through meeting other local parents.

From June 2016 until January 2017 I was responsible for overseeing a day centre for adults with Autism. My responsibilities included: - Management and supervision of frontline and first line management staff- Rota management- Provision of cover to support individuals when required. - Liaising with Care Inspectorate- Management of budgets- Completion of pre-service assessments and management of new service requests- Chairing team meetings- Communication with external professionalsFuthermore, I was responsible for maintaining Quality Assurance through the following; attendance at service user reviews; Inspection of Individual Support Plans; Follow up on incident and accident reports; and completion of staff observations. Within this role i supported staff to work with service users in a holistic and person-centred manner. Support plans were personalised and included a range of activities to enable service users to develop skills in all areas of their lives, from cooking and money skills to social opportunities based on their individual preferences. I began maternity leave in January 2017.

The One Stop Shop was a central hub in Lanarkshire that provided autism specific information and advice. The service was funded through the Scottish Government Autism Strategy 2011. Funding for this service came to an end in June 2016. My responsibilities included:Management and recruitment of a staff teamCollection and collation of qualitative and quantitative evidenceIdentification and completion of funding applicationsDevelopment of the service to respond to local needsIdentification of and networking with stakeholdersDevelopment and delivery of training Delivery of services based on specialist knowledge of autismThe experience of setting up this new service was a great challenge. It was very successful and was accessed by over 1500 individual people. Feedback was consistently positive with an average satisfaction rating of over 90%. We successfully integrated with the local community and services as evidenced by the range of collaborative work and projects carried out with the One Stop Shop. E.g. 1. The local diagnostic service provided diagnostic assessments within the One Stop Shop and we provided post diagnostic support. In addition to this we successfully secured funding to work together to raise awareness of autism and the diagnostic pathways for local GPs. E.G. 2. We worked with North Lanarkshire schools to develop programmes of support to young people with autism who were not attending school or whose attendance was below requirements. Within this post I have also had the opportunity to present at a series of knowledge share events across Scotland. I have also presented on the topic of relationships and sexuality and the topic of anxiety management for Scottish Autism's online support programme Right Click.

Within this post I was responsible for the day to day management of an outreach service for children and adults with Autism and Asperger's Syndrome. I was the registered manager of this service. My responsibilities included:Management of staff teamRota ManagementOncall dutiesManagement of Petty CashDevelopment of services to meet targets set by the Care InspectorateParticular Successes:1. Organisation of event to celebrate and launch a book of creative writing and art work by service users. 2. Increase from Care Inspectorate grade 3 to grade 5 during my time managing the service. 3. Organisation of a sponsored swim event. This has now been adopted by Scottish Autism as an annual fundraiser.

As Project Worker I developed and coordinated a range of services for children and adults with Autism and Aspergers Syndrome. These included social groups and befriending services. Within this role I was responsible for recruiting, training and supervising volunteers and sessional workers. I also chaired the Renfrewshire ASD network.

I worked part time at a playscheme for children with autism and asperger's syndrome as a support worker.