Welcome to Pathway Care West Wales

Tel: 01267 290 033

Fax: 01267 290035

Hello and welcome to Pathway Care West Wales, My name is Alison Parsons, I am the Regional Director here at our offices in Capel Dewi, Carmarthen.

I have worked for Pathway Care for nearly eight years, prior to this, I worked as a Team manager for a specialist fostering team for a local authority and before that as a manager for a community placement scheme in South Glamorgan. My career started 18 years ago in Merthyr, where I joined the Adolescent Services team straight from college, young naive and about to change the world. I am no longer young or naive, but I am still enthusiastic and have learned that although I am never going to change the world, I can, in some small way make a difference. I am consistently impressed by the patience determination and resilience of foster carers and the amount of time they give to helping children. I believe in fostering and am committed to giving better support and remuneration to assist carers in their role. I am proud of Pathway Care's role in the developing of National standards and the recognition of Carers status as colleagues and professionals.

I have seen the team in West Wales grow from 2 members of staff (one of whom was me) to 2 principal officers, 7 Family placement Supervising Social Workers, 1 outreach Worker, 1 Social Work Therapist and 2 Administrators.Over half the team are fluent welsh speakers, reflecting the culture and language of much of the geographical area that we cover.

David McBride, Director of Quality Assurance

                                                                                         
Hello, my name is David McBride and I am the Director for Quality Assurance across the Pathway Care group.

I have been closely associated with Pathway Care for the past nine years. I originally provided a reviewing and inspection service for the agency whilst working with Pembrokeshire County Council. This was under a unique service-level agreement established between a local authority and an independent fostering service. Once the Fostering Service Regulations came into force in 2003 I came to work for Pathway Care continuing to provide reviewing services as well as developing a quality assurance function for the agency. As the Director responsible for quality assurance I act as the Responsible Individual for the agency enabling me to maintain a full overview of all aspects of the services provided by Pathway Care.

My social work career started twenty-three years ago in Bristol where I worked initially in Children's residential services before transferring to working with older people. I qualified whilst working in Bristol before moving with my young family to live and work in Pembrokeshire.

I am proud to have been part of the development of Pathway Care, which I truly believe, stands out as a beacon of good practice and first class service. The success of the agency is not down to the work of specific individuals but the collective effort of a great team of people working together to make a real difference in many children's lives.