‘We are who we want to be’: The belief powering Kirsty Johnston’s work with young people on the edge of care’

Marking International Women’s Day 2026, IPS Service Lead Kirsty Johnston reflects on how giving support, belief and stability can transform a young person’s future. Her story embodies this year’s theme, Give to Gain, showing how lived experience can become a force for change.

How I got here

My career path hasn’t been traditional. I didn’t finish school – I was expelled in Year 10. I’d been struggling for a long time, but instead of receiving support, my behaviour became a way to hide it. Acting out felt safer than admitting I couldn’t learn like everyone else.

I worked in a café before becoming a mum at 19. That’s when things really began to change. A friend told me I’d be great at care work because I was good at building relationships and helping people feel safe, so I took a chance and joined a local home care provider in Bolton. I stayed in that role for nine years, supporting vulnerable adults through incredibly challenging circumstances.

When IPS launched, I applied and got the role. I started as a behaviour support worker, worked my way up to team leader, and now I’m the IPS Service Lead.

Looking back, what really drew me into this career started long before my first job. Growing up in a deprived area meant witnessing things most children never should – gang crime, raids, drug deals, families struggling to cope, and a close-knit community doing its best to get by. At home, I was also watching my dad navigate paranoid schizophrenia without the right support. I didn’t understand his behaviour – I just knew what fear, chaos and instability felt like.

I chose this career because I know exactly what it feels like to need help you don’t know how to ask for. I know what it’s like to feel unheard, misunderstood, or written off. And I know how much difference it makes when even one person sees you for who you are – not for your behaviour, your background, or your worst moment. That’s why I do this work, and why I’ll never stop fighting for the young people and families we support.

Kirsty Johnston said,

“Where we come from doesn’t define who we are. What we experience — deprivation, trauma, chaos — doesn’t have to write our story. We are who we want to be, and I wanted to use my experiences to show others that their past doesn’t define their future.”

What I do – and why it matters

When people ask me what IPS is, I always start with this: we support young people and families who are right on the edge of crisis – and we help keep them together. IPS stands for Intensive Personalised Support, and that “personalised” part is exactly why our work changes lives. No two young people are the same, and no two families are the same, so nothing we do is ever one-size-fits-all.

We work with young people with autism, ADHD and SEND needs, but also those at risk of child sexual exploitation (CSE), those caught up in gang affiliations or county lines, and those whose behaviours stem from neglect or instability. Sometimes the young person is struggling because of what’s happening around them. Sometimes it’s the whole family. Our job is to understand the full picture and put support in place that makes life genuinely safer and more stable.

My role as Service Lead is a mix of supporting my team and staying close to the families we work with. I manage operations, oversee safeguarding, and I’m the person staff call when something doesn’t feel right. I’m also out on visits, doing observations, speaking with parents, and making sure our support is safe, effective and genuinely person-centred. Because I’ve done the frontline work myself, my team know I understand what it’s like to walk into challenging environments.

One of the biggest strengths of IPS is the diversity of our team. We have clinical staff, behavioural specialists, colleagues with youth offending backgrounds, teachers, and people with real lived experience and street-sense. Everyone brings something different, and that helps us relate to young people while spotting things others might miss — signs of exploitation, subtle behavioural cues, safety risks, or even changes in the atmosphere of a home. These insights keep both staff and families safe.

Lasting change is what we’re ultimately working toward. It’s not enough to stabilise a family while we’re there only for things to fall apart afterward. We focus on routines, tools and confidence that families can carry forward. Ultimately, we want to work ourselves out of a job — to leave knowing they no longer need us.

Moments that stay with me

One family still sits with me: a deaf mum with three hearing-impaired children. She couldn’t take the children out into the community. She was doing her best on her own and she was exhausted. We worked closely with them to embed a structure, routine, consistency — all the small but necessary things that make daily life manageable. And now they go on holidays together. They enjoy time as a family. Hearing those updates reminds me exactly why we do what we do.

Not every moment is dramatic. Sometimes it’s a young person brushing their teeth for the first time, or managing a simple routine that once felt impossible. To other people it might look tiny — but in IPS, those tiny things are huge. Any progress is a win.

Many of the young people we meet don’t trust any form of local authority. They’ve felt judged, told what to do, not listened to. So we don’t go in heavy-handed. We don’t march in and start pointing out what’s wrong. We start by listening. We’re clear about the outcomes, but ask, “What do you think we need to work on first?”. Matching staff to each young person and keeping communication calm and simple helps reduce anxiety. Even small tools — like a visual board — can make the day feel predictable and safer.

We’ll always show up at crisis point — that’s part of who we are — but the moments that stay with me most are the ones that show what’s possible when we get in earlier. When we can help a young person before they reach criminalisation. When we give families the tools and the stability they need before a home reaches breaking point. That’s where we can make the biggest difference, preventing these crises from ever happening rather than picking up the pieces afterwards.

Kirsty Johnston added,

“Behaviour is a language. For some of our young people, it’s the only one they have. When we realise that their actions are their communication, we can start truly listening, easing their anxieties and finally understanding what sits underneath.”

What Give to Gain means to me

For me, give to gain is about backing my team so they can back the families we support. I always tell them: nothing is impossible. Set the bar high. Trust your instincts. Believe in what you can do. If someone wants to grow or achieve something, my response is always, “Let’s look at it — let’s work toward it.”

A lot of what I give is honesty and encouragement. When my team come to me with a problem, I’ll ask what they think first — because most of the time, they already know the answer. They just need reminding that they’re capable. That’s what builds confidence and ensures our people can be self-reliant.

Flexibility is also essential. Our staff give so much of themselves in this job, and life doesn’t pause around that. People have kids, appointments, caring responsibilities. If I can be flexible with rotas or support them with something personal, I will. It’s give and receive. And when people feel supported as humans, they stay grounded, compassionate and present — which is exactly what our young people and families need from us.

Give to gain isn’t just a theme to me — it’s how I work. When I invest in my team, they invest in our families. When I help them build confidence, they build trust with young people who’ve never had stability before. That’s the kind of impact that lasts. That’s the work that matters.

Our IPS service provides support 365 days a year, helping children and young people remain safely at home with the guidance and care that they need. To learn more, visit https://intensivepersonalisedsupport.co.uk or speak to a member of our team on 0120 4570 999.