I've worked in COVID Support Schemes - implementation and compliance - for the past 2.5 years. I can honestly say that this has been the most challenging yet rewarding period of my career. The drive to ensure that taxpayers received the financial support that they needed whilst ensuring that this support was targeted correctly was my first experience of managing a large group (450+) of staff who were all working from home. This included 450 temporary staff who had to be onboarded, inducted, trained and supported to work on the main project as well as other strands of work. This was an amazing opportunity to develop a diverse group of non-HMRC staff who were fully committed to delivering the best service to our customers. Prior to this role, I was briefly Head of Talent and Engagement for my business stream and before that I had an operational role to deliver tax cases and manage capability across the South West, Wales and Midlands. In the years leading up to these roles, since I joined the DHSS as an Administrative Assistant in St Anne's on Sea, I have been a Strategic Evasion Lead; a Business Unit Head; an Evasion Team Leader, a Tax Caseworker; a PA; a Management and Technical Trainer as well as a Head Internal Verifier and Assessor for the first accredited NVQ Centre in the Inland Revenue (former HMRC department).

My unit is responsible for recovering overpaid COVID Support Scheme payments. This is high volume work that involves the management of many different project strands and the deployment of at least 6 different cohorts of staff from other business streams to help manage the peaks and troughs of cases. It also involves a significant amount of liaison with different stakeholders across HMRC to ensure that there is no duplication or negative impact on what other colleagues are doing.

Our work is fast-paced and varied - with a lot of pressure at times to deliver our KPIs. Despite the pressure, my Teams take tremendous pride in their work and will go out of their way to deliver what is asked of them. Even though we are scattered throughout the UK, we feel like a family as we have been through so much together in the past twelve months. We have built up a very strong supportive culture where everyone cares about the welfare of their colleagues. My own Manager trusts me to get on and deliver what I'm expected but is always there if I need their help or advice. They are my 'safe space' to let off steam about how things are going!

I have been very lucky in that I have almost always been given a role (or applied for one) that I have enjoyed in HMRC (or earlier departments). If you show that you are keen to learn and willing to listen, then you will find that opportunities will present themselves to you and you will progress in your career. When I was told that I would have to undertake taxes training in 2005, I was horrified. Having been trained in National Insurance and done various management roles, I thought that tax would be just too hard for me and that I wouldn't pass the exams. However, I committed wholeheartedly to the training programme. I studied hard and passed all the exams first time - even though my daughter was still a baby so I was constantly exhausted as well as having to travel to London once a week for 18 months for my tutorials!

HMRC takes the development of its people very seriously. Having been a manager for many years, I was fortunate to be accepted on the Chartered Managers Degree Apprenticeship scheme in 2018 and have just finished my last assignment and portfolio. This has been 4 years of part-time study and basically a hard slog to complete 13 assignments, a work-based project and a portfolio of evidence to gain a BSc in Professional Management as well as (hopefully!) Chartered Manager status from the Chartered Management Institute. Having left university prematurely after 2 years when I was 20, I am proud to have been able to finally graduate with a 2:1 thanks to the support from HMRC and my manager and wider team. I was allowed one day a week to attend tutorials and was able to do this with support from my colleagues (who covered for me) and encouragement from my family (who put up with my stress and rantings before deadlines!). I am also proud of managing 2 different Teams in Covid Schemes who have been runners up in the Customer Compliance Group Celebrating Success Awards for their exceptional work to collaborate with others to meet incredibly stretching targets.