Shining the Spotlight on... Mel K

Mel K as she’s affectionately known has recently been promoted to Operations Manager for Social Care Solutions. Starting with SCS as an assessor in 2020, she quickly rose to the Qld Team Leader role as her skills and experience in assessing foster and kinship carers was evident. Over the past 3 years, Mel K has worked tirelessly to improve quality across the Qld team of assessors, growing their skills, building their confidence, being a listening ear and a guiding voice.

As SCS grows and the need for more operational support was clear, the decision to promote Mel was obvious. Her endless commitment to excellence in practice has been highlighted by staff, agency workers and clients and her accepting this promotion is a dream come true for SCS!

Mel has worked in the Foster and Kinship Care field since 2008, supporting, training and assessing carers across QLD who provide care to children with a wide range of needs. Melissa has an ongoing passion for quality assessments and developing and presenting training for both for carers and practitioners alike.

Melissa has enjoyed presenting at various conferences, including the Trauma Aware Schooling Conference in 2019 and Foster and Kinship Carer Conferences in 2014 and 2015 and appreciates the opportunity to engage with others who share her dedication to the safety of young people. More recently Mel has been busy presenting at the IFCO International Foster Care Conference in Darwin 2022 and QFKC National Conference in Cairns 2023.

Mel continues to demonstrate her commitment to upskilling staff, carers and peers alike and takes great pride in being able to support the team as ‘changemakers’ in the child protection field.

Known as a stickler for detail and being able to organise the heck out of an outlook calendar, Melissa’s reliability assists in ensuring both practitioners and carers alike feel confident that she will deliver what and when she says she will.