ClearPath Benefit Support Team: The People Behind ClearPath

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 My career has never followed a particularly conventional path.

I studied International Agribusiness Management before spending more than a decade trading commodities internationally — a career that took me everywhere from China to Iran and gave me rather more knowledge about peanuts, sultanas and saffron than is particularly useful nowadays!

An unexpected move into training eventually changed everything. In 2003, I founded Real Time Training Ltd, initially providing government-funded literacy and numeracy training for unemployed adults. The business grew to employ around 270 people across the UK, but for me it was never simply about putting people through qualifications.

We used learning as a starting point. Where we could, we also helped people gain practical qualifications that might genuinely improve their chances of finding work. That experience gave me a deep understanding of government-funded employment and skills programmes and, over the years, the wider world of DWP provision.

Since then, I've worked across business management, compliance, ISO management systems and Mental Health First Aid training. On paper, that probably looks like a fairly strange collection of careers, but to me there's always been a thread connecting them.

I've always been fascinated by systems and the effect those systems have on the real people expected to navigate them. And I have a slightly obsessive tendency to ask:

“But why do we do it that way?”

That question has followed me throughout my career and has become particularly important at ClearPath.

I'm not ClearPath's benefits expert. Ellis and Teresa, our advisory team, bring that specialist knowledge and experience, and I'm very happy to leave it in their considerably more capable hands. What I bring is something different.

I want to help build the kind of organisation our clients and our people deserve — ethical, transparent, compassionate and never frightened to question an established way of doing something simply because “that's how it's always been done.”

After nearly forty years of working life, ClearPath brings together an awful lot of what I've learned along the way. Perhaps that's why it feels a little like coming home.

I don't believe people should have to become experts in the benefits system simply because changes to their health, age or capacity have made life more difficult. If ClearPath can help make that difficult time a little easier, then we're doing something worthwhile.

  I’ve worked in health and social care throughout my career, supporting people living with disabilities, long-term health conditions and many of the other challenges that life can bring.

My experience has taken me into GP surgeries, care homes and even a funeral home, as well as working as a senior coordinator on a very busy helpdesk. There, I worked face to face with residents, helping people access support for their mental and physical health, supporting carers and helping people find their way through the services available to them.

I’ve also supported volunteers and worked closely with organisations including Adult Social Services, the Carers Service and Shelter. I’m trained in both adult and children’s safeguarding, I’m a Mental Health First Aider and I hold a Diploma in Counselling.

Whatever the situation, I always want to achieve the best possible outcome for the person in front of me. I believe everyone deserves to be listened to, treated with respect and supported to access the help they need.

And when I’m not working? I’m usually signing myself up for another course, crocheting, doodling or enjoying my favourite hobby of all — chatting and meeting new people!

For me, it comes back to something very simple: listen to people, treat them with respect and do everything you can to help.

I’ve always been a people person. I love talking to people, but more importantly, I love listening to them. Everyone has a story, and I think sometimes just having someone genuinely take the time to hear yours can make a real difference.

I’ve spent most of my working life around people, from starting out as a hairdresser and later running a children’s nursery, to studying Fine Art at university and running my own creative businesses. My path hasn’t always been a straight one, but caring about people has been a constant throughout it.

I have a strong sense of fairness and find injustice or seeing someone being overlooked particularly difficult. If there’s a way I can help someone, I generally want to find it.

 At ClearPath, I look after much of our social media, marketing and website — including the words you're reading now! But one of my favourite parts of being involved with ClearPath is our advice days. I get to meet people, hear their stories and hopefully help make something that felt complicated or worrying feel a little easier. 

That, for me, is what ClearPath is really about — people helping people.

 I’m passionate about helping people navigate the benefits system and making sure they feel supported, listened to and understood throughout the process.

I have five years’ experience working within the UK benefits system, which has given me a strong understanding of the challenges people can face when trying to access the support they may be entitled to. I also have a BA (Hons) in Criminology and Criminal Justice and am a trained Mental Health First Aider.

Before ClearPath, I spent many years working in childcare, supporting vulnerable people, safeguarding and working alongside other professionals and agencies. I also volunteered with Lancashire Constabulary as a Restorative Justice Facilitator, an experience that helped develop the communication, advocacy and conflict-resolution skills I still use today.

At ClearPath, I work directly with our clients as well as being involved in the day-to-day running of the business. One part of my work I particularly enjoy is helping people with Mandatory Reconsiderations and appeals. I genuinely enjoy getting into the detail — researching the relevant legislation and guidance, understanding what has happened and building a strong argument when I believe a decision doesn't properly reflect someone's circumstances or needs.

For me, ClearPath is about much more than completing forms.

 It's about listening to someone, understanding their individual circumstances and making sure their voice is heard — particularly when they may be struggling to make that voice heard for themselves.

ClearPath’s resident Paramedic!

Outside of ClearPath, I’m a full-time frontline paramedic, a dad of three and the better half of Ellis. Life is pretty busy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

I volunteer my time with ClearPath, bringing experience from a career spent working with, supporting and understanding people from all walks of life. Before becoming a paramedic, I worked within the police service in a number of different roles and have also worked within the mental health sector, supporting people to live independently. Those experiences taught me a great deal about vulnerability, safeguarding, problem-solving and the importance of understanding what might be going on behind the scenes in someone’s life.

Working as a frontline paramedic gives me another perspective. Every day I see first-hand how health conditions, medication and individual circumstances can affect people and their families. Sometimes those effects are obvious, but often the things having the greatest impact on someone's day-to-day life aren't immediately visible.

At ClearPath, I use that experience to help the team understand the bigger picture — whether that's how a particular condition or medication might affect someone, or how their wider circumstances could influence their health, wellbeing and ability to manage everyday life.

Over my career I've had the privilege of supporting people at every stage of life, from birth through to end of life and everything in between. Through ClearPath, I now get to use that experience in a different way.

As a paramedic I see how difficult life can become when someone's health or circumstances change. At ClearPath, I get to see the difference that the right advice, support and understanding can make.

For me, it's really important that we look at the person, not just the condition. Everyone is different, and understanding the bigger picture helps us understand the person we're trying to support.