Date published: October 13, 2022
Awards 2022: Kuldip Dhadda is our Outstanding Shared Lives Carer of the year
Kuldip Dhadda was recently awarded our Outstanding Carer of the year award. How is it she became a Shared Lives carer, and what makes her so special?
Kuldip moved to the UK back in 1980 aged 19, where she stayed with her in laws. Her relationship with her in laws soon became strained as she refused to bend to their bossy nature. As a result she moved out. Years later she moved to Godalming in Surrey in 1994, where for a period she worked in the airport. Eventually she found herself involved in fostering. These experiences seemed to confirm her desire to work helping others, and in 2014 she became a Shared Lives carer.
‘If we could take Kuldip’s DNA and clone her, we would’. These are the words of Christina Earl, Head of Innovation and Business Development at Surrey choices, the scheme where Kuldip works. Kuldip is best known for giving anyone a chance. She disregards people’s backgrounds, and whilst this attitude may have brought her some tough arrangements, it has also led to her changing the lives of many people.
“Normally I’m not that interested in what they have to say (about the person) because people change. You know sometimes you’ve got this label you’ve got that label, he’s done this when he was ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen. But then he was with different people. So I just don’t take much notice of that.” Kuldip says.
“The difficulties many people have is a two-way thing.”
Kuldip takes great interest in the lives of the people she supports, something she believes is key in gaining their respect. She also involves them in her life. Kuldip lives with her grandchildren, one of the men she cared for built a very close relationship with them.
“When he was around in the evening he’d say ‘Kuldip you stay in the car’, I’m going to go and get the kids, not only get the kids from the school, he’d speak to the teachers and teaching assistants to see how they’re doing. And he wanted to do that himself, you know he was that much entrusted.”
This attitude has cultivated some lifelong friendships with the people she has supported. This same man she supported is now married and has children. On his children’s first day of school he sent Kuldip a picture of them in their uniform. Kuldip was delighted to see the life he was now leading. That is why she is a Shared Lives carer, a great one at that.
