Fiona Macpherson: Outreach Team Manager
Fiona joined Carers Oxfordshire in September 2011. She started as an Outreach Worker for South Oxfordshire, then went on to manage the South Team. She is now the Outreach Team Manager, which involves managing the Outreach Team, CarersLine, carers groups and events. She is also the lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Before joining Carers Oxfordshire Fiona worked in adult community learning for Oxfordshire County Council. During this role, she organised well-being courses for often overlooked groups, including the homeless, travellers and people with English as a second language. Fiona says “I have good skills at getting on with lots of different types of people; mainly harder-to-reach communities, that’s why I wanted to be the Outreach Service Manager because I really love outreach work.”
In the past, she also worked for the charity Aim Higher, encouraging young people to apply for university and higher education. She says “It was for people who wouldn’t normally have thought about going to university, including young carers”.
Fiona has personal experience of caring; she looks after her dad. “He has progressive hearing and sight impairment. I visit him, help sort out his garden, the equipment he needs including hearing aids and doctors’ appointments.” She also cared for her mum, supporting her through cancer.
Fiona enjoys managing her team “I like to have a team that works well together. I try really hard to make sure I support them all to the best of my ability. When they are happy and doing a good job so am I”.
She’s keen to spread the word about our service “Carers are really overlooked as a group. It’s lovely that there is something for them. So many people don’t realise there is, and they are very grateful for what we can offer. I’m really passionate about reaching groups that wouldn’t normally use the service.”
She works Tuesdays to Thursdays 9 am – 5.30 pm.