What's Fairy Jobmother all about?
The content of the programme is about helping people move forward with their lives and, hopefully, helping them move into employment. It's about them identifying their skills, their personal qualities, about getting them to market themselves properly. It's about getting them to believe in themselves, most importantly, and what they've got to offer. And it's about being able to move them and their family forward in life.
I live with people for roughly three weeks and I stay in the house for the first night which is interesting as you never know if you'll have a bed or not. And I only had a bed once!
What about the people that you meet - what are they like?
Oh, amazing, absolutely amazing. So interesting, so fascinating, so accommodating and welcoming. Each family was lovely in their own way. All very, very different though.
I'm still in touch with them now. You can't just leave someone and expect them to get on with it. People still need that motivation and support. And I like to be in touch with them. It's important to me.
People may know you from Benefit Busters but how was it fronting your own show?
Well, in Benefit Busters I was just a tiny, little part of that. So presenting this show was very, very strange for me. People started to recognise me, which was quite overwhelming.
This, being my own, is the most amazing thing ever because it gives me the opportunity to take this issue - which affects every single one of us every day - and get it out there on a public platform. My hope is that it changes the perception of people who are unemployed, that it will change the stereotypical image. It will let people see the reasons why some people cannot work and cannot move forward.
Some of the episodes are quite emotional. You get upset yourself. Why do you think this is?
Because I've been there and I've seen the transformation from someone who has no self-belief and self-worth to someone, with courage and support, who starts to believe in themselves.
You can't live with someone for three weeks and do the kind of work I do and not care. It's about empathy and being compassionate and understanding. How can you not be moved by helping to change someone's life?
Where does your own positivity and motivation come from?
I think I've worked hard all my life and for everything I've got. And I've got to the point now where I'm genuinely doing what I love.
I've worked hard to get there and I know that feeling, how it makes me feel and the pride that I carry, that I've got this ability to be able to share in people's live like that.
If I can glean lessons from the mentors I've had in my life, who have helped me get to where I am, why can't I go and share that with somebody else?
What's your own work history?
I left school and went to college for three years to study hairdressing. I became a hairdresser, qualified and everything. I went to work for a certain salon when I was 24 years old and the tutor was off that day. Who did they get to step in but me? Worst nightmare. Standing in front of a class of hormonal 16-year-old girls who wanted to be the next Vidal Sassoon.
I thought, what do I do? I didn't have a lesson plan - what do I do? We had a broken telephone in the office part of the classroom so I thought, 'We'll do telephone skills.' So I started picking the phone up and putting on stupid voices for people, making appointments and I got everyone laughing and then at the end of it they said, 'Miss, are we having you again?'
It was like a bolt of lightening. I thought, 'This is it, this is what I want to do.' I wanted to pass my knowledge on to other people.
I then lost all interest in the practical side of hairdressing. I did carry on doing it but I had to go to night classes to get my teaching qualifications and work during the day. I ended up having two salons of my own and then I had my daughter.
I took seven years out of work and found that I lost a lot of confidence in my ability to get up there and stand up and deliver a lesson. And that's what made me think and relate to people who've lost their confidence.
I know how it feels to think that you can't do something. It's a horrible, horrible feeling. But I did it, and I stood in front of the class again, and from then on I've taught, and taught, and taught until I found myself in Benefit Busters by sheer fluke, never having had any thoughts about going into this kind of work. I'm just me and I do what I do and I couldn't see that this was quite novel or interesting because that's just what I was used to doing.
So then to be offered a series was like, 'Oh my god I can't believe it.' And it's just been the most wonderful experience. It's been amazing. And everything happens for a reason and it's taught me so much.
Like what?
I've learnt to be more patient and how lucky I am not to have suffered some of these family situations. I've also learnt how important my family are and how precious they are - the support and what they give me. I could write you a book on what I've learnt. I really could.
But that will now enrich me as a person. Being with the people has helped me become a better and more understanding person - so I've got something from them. And they probably feel like they've given me nothing, but they've given me so much.
Have you ever encountered people you haven't been able to help?
The only people I haven't been able to help are the people that don't want to help themselves. And that's the truth. If they haven't got that inkling, or desire, or want to move forward - then they won't. And there's nothing I or anyone else can do. A person will only move when they are ready.
