Martine Aquilina, Head of Service – Targeted Support and Youth Justice Service
I joined Plymouth City Council in May 2010 as an agency worker in the Looked after Children Team and became permanent the following year.
In 2013, I made the decision to apply for a management position in the referral and assessment service and was successful. I wanted to see how I could support children and families much earlier in the process. This was a huge learning curve for me and I was well supported to make this adjustment.
In 2019, I felt ready to progress and wanted to see how we could develop the service to ensure we intervened even earlier in children’s and families’ lives, and I was fortunate to get the opportunity to become the Service Manager for the Targeted Support and Youth Justice Teams.
Two years later, I took a temporary position as Head of Service. I was given permission to be creative and think outside the box and as a result, the service grew in size. In 2022 the position became permanent and I remain working as Head of Service for a service that are committed to working alongside children and families to improve outcomes.
I love that we are given permission to try new things, learning from those times things don’t work and encouraged to try again! We work in a truly restorative and strengths-based way – finding ways to work with families and support them to make the changes needed to give their children the possible outcomes.
I love working with like-minded people who are committed to doing the right thing for children and families.
Plymouth is a special place – full of hope and surrounded by beautiful spaces with some of the best beaches in the world right on our doorstep and the moors to the north. We are a small city so building relationships across agencies is easy – and our partners really want to work with us to improve children’s lives.