Janet Telford this year celebrates her 32nd anniversary with our Trust – after a passion for supporting people inspired her career choices at an early age.
“You know the NHS is there for you, which is reassuring,” she said. “If there is an accident or if someone has chest pains or is in a crisis – you know who to call.”
Janet, who is originally from Scotland, trained as a speech and language therapist at Queen Margaret College in Edinburgh, joining the NHS straight after graduation.
Inspiring family
“Although my sister was a nurse, I really got interested in working for the NHS after helping at a club for people with physical and learning disabilities,” she said.
“I also had an uncle, who had lost his hearing and speech after having meningitis. Our family developed different ways of sign language to communicate with him.”
Janet moved south to County Durham after finishing her college studies to work for Durham Health Authority – one of the precursor organisations of TEWV.
Career at our Trust
Her first role was as a speech therapist, working with adults and children with learning disabilities, as well as with children with speech and language difficulties.
“I worked across Chester-le-Street Health Centre, Earl’s House in Durham and at schools for children with special educational needs. I absolutely loved it,” she said.
“I’d always wanted to work with people with learning disabilities, and the majority of my week was spent doing just that – exploring alternative communications methods.”
Janet continued to specialise in learning disabilities over the following years, remaining with TEWV through various incarnations to keep caring for our patients.
Sense of community at work
“There was always a real community feeling around the provision of learning disability services,” she said. “It was a multi-disciplinary way of working, with respect for all the clinical professions, which was great.”
Janet’s highlights from that time include being offered the role of speech and language therapy co-ordinator – which gave her a taste of people management.
It was not a career development she had considered before but, when she started managing teams, she found she really enjoyed it.
Janet served as head of speech and language therapy trust-wide for ten years, during which time she developed relationships in all the organisation’s specialities and localities.
Then, when a secondment opportunity came up for a locality manager in learning disability services, she applied. It was meant to be for six months – but lasted 18.
Career development
“It allowed me to step into an operational post to see if it was a good fit. A safe way to try something different. From that, I knew I wanted to stay in operations,” she said.
Janet is now general manager for Health and Justice services – and continues to love her job. She has never regretted spending her working life with the NHS and supports it fully.
“I’ve learned loads in Health & Justice and work with great people. There is a real community spirit in the service, we are all working together to help others,” she said.
“I’ve also always been supported to do clinical, and later managerial and leadership, training. I think that the support provided to develop is something our Trust should be proud of.
“The NHS is an amazing organisation, and somewhere I’m very proud to work.”
