Building a career in disability in Australia

Before boarding a plane bound for Australia, Daniella had already lined up a job interview in the disability sector.

Originally from Portsmouth in the UK, she started working in disability support while studying nursing at university.

“I started as soon as I turned 18, I jumped straight into the sector,” she said.

“The first place I worked was a five-bedroom Supported Independent Living service.”

After making a move to full-time disability work, Daniella pursued further studies in health and social care management before becoming an area manager in the UK.

“I love nursing and I love this sector, the different range of people you work with,” she said.

Daniella said a key difference between nursing in a hospital and working in disability was the opportunity to build relationships with people.

“In disability you're in people’s lives a lot longer, you get to know them a lot better, you don't just patch people up and they go,” she said.

Daniella moved to Australia in 2017 and within two weeks had a job as a coordinator in the disability sector.

She moved to InLife in 2019 and has worked her way up from Coordinator to Senior Client Service Manager.

“Going through our (communications) platform Workplace, I just grin like anything when I see all the amazing things we get to do with people, it’s incredible,” she said.

Daniella said these activities could range from getting a client back swimming when they hadn’t been in the pool for a long time, to finding fun ways to get someone involved in household tasks.

She said one of the best things about working with InLife was the ability team members had to “make things happen”.

“I think it makes people enjoy their job. They're able to have an idea and try and run with it and get it into place,” Daniella said.

“For me, one of the things I love most is that we are able to be so flexible and so genuinely client-focused.

‘In a lot of other companies it feels like a lot of hoop jumping to get things done and it really holds up progress.”

Daniella’s advice to others seeking to grow their careers in the sector.

“Get stuck into everything you can, jump at opportunities to work with different types of people, try not to get pigeon-holed into one particular area,” she said.

“And if you’ve got an idea or something’s not quite right, tell someone about it.”