Hello, I'm Sarah Wagstaff, Carers Manager

At Reach, we recognise how important it is to support our family carers, so succession planning was already underway before I stepped into the Carers Manager role. Building on my previous experience as a qualified Learning Disability Nurse and as a Project Co-ordinator at Flower Pod Southwell, I took over from Catherine Shatwell following her retirement earlier this year. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside Catherine – shadowing her gave me opportunity to learn, meet many of our family carers, and complete formal training around welfare benefits.

Family, travelling, and keeping healthy are all important to me, and I believe that both my lived experience and professional nursing background in learning disability and mental health settings will help me build strong, trusting relationships with family carers. I’m here to offer guidance, a listening ear, and to signpost to support wherever I can.

This is a challenging time for many people who rely on social care services, especially with the upcoming changes to welfare benefits including Personal Independence Payments and the move to Universal Credit. We’re expecting to see an increased demand for support for family carers, and I’m ready to meet that challenge

If you or anyone you know is caring for somebody with a learning disability, please do reach out to me any time by email at sarah.wagstaff@reachuk.org.