Spotlight Interview- Emily Hattersley Widening Participation Team at Cardiff University

Single Parent ChildrenChildrens Mental HealthEducation
Written By Amy Holland

Emily has a few hats that she wears including working on the Widening Participation Team, single parent and imspirational young person. In this spotlight Emily talks about the teams vision for young people, juggling being a single parent and what would be in Emily’s Mental Health Manifesto.

How did you end up working for Widening Participation?

The Widening Participation Team work to supporting individuals with barriers to education and I (without knowing it) was receiving support from them whilst in university due to being a student with care experience. The dedicated university contact for care leavers invited me to have a chat with the WP team about sharing my experiences for their annual report. The team then offered me an internship with them over the summer, and I fell in love with the work, the team, the ideologies, and everything else that goes with it. A job came up as an administrator and I applied and was lucky enough to get the job. We work to support so many people from so many diverse backgrounds and experiences that I’m incredibly proud of my job. 

Can you tell us what you do every day for young people across Wales? 

Our team works to support groups of people that are typically underrepresented in higher education or who have experienced educational disadvantage or disruption. We work with Mature Students, parents, young people, and current university students. It would be impossible for me to say what we do day to day, as, particularly through the pandemic, we have implemented new projects that have been tailored to our participants and their specific needs. We are always searching for ways to level the playing field for prospective students, so every day is different. 

Our team supports young people with Autism Spectrum Conditions through our Discovery Project with bespoke sessions conducted through the gaming software Minecraft, to provide interactive live workshops and virtual to-scale campus tours through the software. For more information, please visit our Discovery page HERE.

Our flagship programme Step-Up is a two-year programme that supports year 12 college and sixth form students that may have experienced educational disruption or disadvantage (for example, care experienced, eligible for free school meals, first in family to go to university, asylum seeker, young carer etc). You can get more information about the step-up programme HERE.

Through our pathways programme, our team offered prospective students help with their personal statements, in readiness for applying to university. Our HE roadshow programme offers a variety of workshops and talks to young people in years 9-11 throughout wales, to help inspire and inform them about university. 

We also offer bespoke projects to young carers, and care experienced young people, in partnership with First Campus.  Please find the First Campus info HERE.

In looking for ways to support young people more, our team recently partnered with Parent Power; a South London initiative to reach out to BAME parents of KS3 and KS4 students, to understand, from a parent’s perspective, the challenges and barriers their children face throughout education. These sessions are conducted though a variety of group workshops, networking events and 121 meetings and have resulted in a valuable insight into potential barriers to education, such as insufficient funds for visas, school uniform costs, language barriers and inability to attend open days.

Please see our microsite for more information about our projects! 

What is WP's vision for the young people you support? 

The Widening Participation and Outreach Team’s slogan is “Education is for all” and I believe this sums up our vision for everyone we work with. We believe that education should be for all and our team focuses on those who are under-represented in higher education or who have experienced educational disadvantage or disruption.

Our programmes and outreach events have been designed to break down the barriers to higher education, so it is accessible to all. In my opinion, education offers a route out of poverty, as was the case with me, and by supporting people through their educational journey, to me, is part of tackling a wider issue in society. 

How have you found the juggling act of having your dream job along with being a young parent? 

It’s been difficult at times. Working full time and also being a single parent often means that you aren’t able to have the break you need, when you need it. Times where my daughter has had periods of waking in the night, or has gone through a difficult phase in herself, or there have been struggles surrounding childcare, it’s been very difficult to concentrate and maintain focus on work, but it’s getting easier. It’s been a steep learning curve in terms of finding the right way to have the proper home-life balance, and I feel like I can’t sit still these days because I’m so used to being constantly at 110%. But I feel like the longer I’ve done it, the easier it has become, and recently, I’ve begun recognising what I’ve actually achieved at the end of a workday, once my daughter is fed, bathed and put to bed. 

I think there is a lot of pressure on you when you are financially responsible for both yourself, and your child, and this can riddle you with anxiety, or motivate you, and sometimes both at the same time. Being a mother alongside being a young professional has really helped to align my priorities, given me a reason to take work seriously and really appreciate the position I am in.  

However, I have to be honest, if I didn’t love my job, I think it would be very difficult to juggle both. I’m incredibly grateful that I’m surrounded by such supportive colleagues and that my job inspires me every day; a lot of the time, I feel like what I do makes a difference. I’m genuinely so grateful to be able to find purpose both at home, as a mother, and at work, as a professional, and the opportunities and connections these both have given me. 

Did working from home during the pandemic with a young child have an impact on your mental health? 

Significantly. The first few months for me, are just a blur of constant terrible-two tantrums, endless housework, professional-work, relationship work, parenting, tears, anxiety, and consistent all-nighters, all stuffed within the same 4 walls, with no chance of escape or comfort, or any hope of it ending. I felt like I couldn’t breathe most of lockdown, and I know many incredible parents and even non-parents that felt the same sense of never-ending hopelessness at that time. It was not an easy year for anyone.

I was just grateful that I was so supported throughout it; I was undergoing a very cooperative split from my daughter’s father at the time, my work understood the challenges we were all facing, and took a very empathetic approach towards anyone that needed support. I was able to take some sick leave for my mental health, which allowed me time to realign, and get used to the single-parent-swing-of-things. Work provided me with counselling support, and, upon return, weekly check-ins with managers, where I could openly talk about things I was struggling with. This removed work as a stress for a while, enabling me to gradually ease myself back in and have the confidence to identify stressful and triggering situations, and remove myself, before returning with a clearer head. 

The pandemic and working from home with a young child significantly heightened my mental health issues, however, I do feel like if they hadn’t gotten to such a level, I would never have felt I could openly talk about them, nor would I have sought help to learn how to manage them properly. I feel like the pandemic has really opened a line of communication about mental health that was previously not there. 

What is your Mental Health Manifesto? 

  • In a work perspective, staff should be encouraged to be open about their issues and manage their workload accordingly.

  • Time off (sick) for mental health should be destigmatised and seen as an accessible form of help.

  • 1 Mental health day per month to be offered to each staff member if needed. + understanding that people sometimes just need time and support to breathe. 

  • Mandatory training for every staff member about mental health and the best ways to be understanding/ supportive (as this has a significant effect on how a person with MH will speak about/ feel about their issues moving forwards). 

  • Counselling should be easily accessible – more funding and more sessions (From my experience, I was only able to access 6 sessions of counselling. I feel that people in impoverished communities, where MH rates could be significantly higher, perhaps will not have the means to access regular counselling, and thus, be stuck in a cycle). 

  • Childcare should be free for all children up to the age of 4, should parents chose to return to work. Some people found their Mental Health improved when they were given a goal to work towards; a purpose; a job they loved. This can sometimes be completely inaccessible to young mothers/ parents of young children due to childcare restraints, and this could impact Mental health. 

  • Teach children Mental Health de-escalation techniques and how to manage them (including self-care) in schools, prior to age 16.

  • Teach workshops on self-care and how to look after yourself – yoga, exercise, meditation, washing regularly, how to make/ the benefits of healthy, and nutritious food etc. 

  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) should be more easily accessible (when I tried to access as a teenager, I was on a wait list for 10 months), should have more funding, and the route to accessing it should be advertised to showcase the support to those that don’t know about it. 

  • Encourage wellbeing ethos’ such as ‘If a job takes less than 2 minutes, do it immediately’ and “split your day into 4 quadrants, Morning, afternoon, evening and night. If you’ve had a bad morning, there’s still chance to have a good afternoon” 

  • I want people to not be afraid of expressing when they’re struggling. It’s not a weakness, it’s a massive sign of strength to be able to say you need help. 

  • Congratulate yourself for the little achievements you do. Getting out of bed is a worthwhile achievement to have done! 

  • Think of one thing you’re grateful for every morning as soon as you wake up. 

What are the social handles for Widening Participation and website?

Twitter: @CU_Outreach

Email: outreach@cardiff.ac.uk 

Emily’s Useful Links: 


Amy Holland
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