Wider Healthcare Team
Real life stories
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Name: John Wheeler
Job title: Decorator, Ealing Hospital, West London
Entry route: qualified decorator
John needed to find an employer that would value his skills as a decorator but also recognise his family responsibilities. He rates the NHS as the perfect employer and is enjoying interesting and varied work. The flexibility of his job means he can fulfil his role as a parent.
”I have been a decorator ever since I left school, having done my apprenticeship in Ireland. I got a job at a top West End hotel. It was a decorator's dream. I was doing everything I ever learned at college – special effects, all the really skilled stuff.
“Then my son was born and he had lots of problems. Later, we found out he was autistic. And my mother-in-law became ill. I was under a lot of stress in my family life but the hotel was very profit led. They weren’t at all understanding and failed to give me the help I needed at a difficult time.
“I'd worked for the NHS once before and decided to go back. They were so much more flexible and family friendly – providing just the support you'd hope for from an employer. My wife and I have lots of appointments with different experts for our son and my employers are always supportive. Everything is so much easier.
“The work is varied and interesting too – I do as many as four or five small jobs in a day, working in a number of buildings. I am very happy with the situation. I give the NHS ten out of ten as an employer.”
