At Siamo we take the wellbeing and safeguarding of employees very seriously. We have appointed Roberta Patton, a Safeguarding and Wellbeing Officer within our Training Division, to ensure all of our learners are supported and have access to information on where to get additional help.

Roberta’s current role consists of supporting all learners within our apprenticeship division with any support or concerns that they may have around safeguarding, health and wellbeing. Primarily the role consists of being the main point of contact for safeguarding and wellbeing concerns, where she can contact the learner to gain more information and signpost to the correct means of support when required.

Roberta works closely with our external Health Assured Programme, where learners can gain support with things such as Mental Health Counselling, Debt, Stress, Anxiety, Alcohol, Drug abuse or whatever else they may need.
We are constantly looking at new ways to expand and better this service within our division and are planning to create a series of support videos for learners, activities that can be embedded into learning and additional support such as behavioural observations.

Roberta holds a Level 5 in Counselling Skills and studies as well as a Level 5 in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and has 6 years’ experience in working with vulnerable adults including those presenting with self-harm, suicide and mental health concerns. More recently, via Siamo Training Roberta has also completed a Level 3 in Adult Safeguarding via the NHS.

Roberta said: “I enjoy working with and helping people, so this role is perfect for both my nurturing and supportive personality, as well as my skill set. I find this role very humbling as I can help learners to overcome barriers and via a mix of support from myself, their assessor and sometimes external partners, we are together able to help learners achieve their goals for home and life as well as their learning journey.”