Saturday 16th November saw over 500 of the very best in social care attended a glittering awards ceremony at The Hilton Bankside, for the finals of the Great London Care Awards, where the category winners were announced.
The Great London Care Awards are part of the Great British Care Awards, a series of 10 regional awards celebrating excellence across the care sector. The purpose of the awards is to promote best practice within both home care and care homes sectors, and pay tribute to those individuals who have demonstrated outstanding excellence within their field of work.
Sector support for the events includes Care England, The Department of Health, The National Care Forum, The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and the Alzheimer’s Society, as well as local authorities and other commercial organisations.
There are a range of categories available for nomination, which represent all areas of the care sector; whether it be older people or specialist services and from frontline staff such as care workers and care managers to people who have made an impact in other ways such as training.
Winners of the Great London Care Awards will go through to the final at Birmingham’s ICC on 20th March 2020.
The winners of the Great London Care Awards, together with the judge’s comments are detailed below:
The Care Home Employer Award
Caring Homes Group
The judges were impressed with the groups’ staff wellbeing strategy, particularly in relation to their young carers and pastoral support provided to them. The value-based recruitment and training and development processes are well homed, particularly in relation to the recruitment of overseas staff. There is a long list of staff benefits. Their level of staff engagement and empathy Is particularly impressive given they have a workforce of 5000.
The Home Care Employer Award
Curacare
A family business with family values that values and motivate its staff to deliver innovative, person centred care. A supportive culture that is reflected in staff retention.
The Care Home Worker Award
Rubeya Illyasa
Colin Winter House
Rubeya always has the best interests for people he supports and advocates and delivers person centred care in all he does. He is great at partnership working and has achieved the outcomes for the individuals.
The Home Care Worker Award
Kell Byer
Peabody
Kell is very passionate about his job and that shone through during the interview. He applies this to achieve the best outcomes for service users whilst being mindful of their wishes and preferences. Judges were moved when Kell said he wanted to progress to management in order to be able to influence change for the service users and staff.
The Care Home Newcomer Award
Jimmy Shah
Sanctuary Supported Living
Having arrived in the UK with his family in 2018 and with no formal care experience, Jimmy has quickly excelled as a support worker, embracing challenges and making a huge difference to the lives of the people he supports.
The Home Care Newcomer Award
Rebecca McCarthy
Bluebird Care Croydon
Rebecca goes above and beyond to make a real difference to the lives of her service users. Bubbly, passionate and a feisty advocate, Rebecca is an asset to her company and indeed the sector as a whole.
The Care Home Registered Manager Award
Nathan Glazier
The Esland Group
A truly inspirational young man that is making such an incredible impact on the lives of young people. He is passionate about transitioning challenged people through their current difficulties to happy, positive and independent living.
The Home Care Registered Manager Award
Lucy Challis
Blue Arrow Care
Lucy’s passion, commitment and enthusiasm for her clients, their families and their staff shone through. The service provides an innovative free companionship service which combats social isolation. Lucy provided us with inspiring accounts of how clients led a more fulfilling life thanks to opportunities provided by Blue Arrow Care.
The Care Home Cook/Chef Award
Sharon Pearson
Barchester
Sharon demonstrated her passion for delivering high quality food for her residents, and with support from Barchester, for groups in the community. The judges were impressed by her mantra “the only limit on choice is what’s in store”.
The Dignity in Care Award
Renato Alteza
Barchester Healthcare
Renato has innate capacity to care and empathise with others. This is evidenced by the heartfelt testimonials from residents and families. His ‘no need to rush’ care mantra, shone through.
The Dementia Carer Award
Bridget Keane
Octavia Housing
Bridget demonstrated an exceptional level of understanding and knowledge of working with people living with dementia. Judges were very impressed at her clear joy and sense of gratitude of working with her service users, and how she demonstrated her ability to respond to individuals needs and personal circumstances.
The Care Home Team Award
The Clarendon Nursing Home Team
Clarendon Nursing Home
The judges were impressed by their sheer passion and dedication of this team. An inspirational team who support one another to provide innovative, person centred care.
The Home Care Team Award
Empress Ohiku and the team at Church Lane
Brandon Trust
Bridget, Empress and the team showed great enthusiasm for providing person centred care for those living with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour. As a team, they demonstrated the importance of effective communication and shared visions and goals. They clearly go above and beyond for their service users and are flexible to their needs.
The Care Home Activity Organiser Award
Ashbrook Court Lifestyles Team
Ashbrook Court Care Home
An innovative team who demonstrated a clear passion to improve the lives of residents with a clear focus for those living with dementia. Through person centred, intergenerational and meaningful activities the team have made a real impact for residents.
The Ancillary Worker Award
George Quarshie
Barchester Healthcare
George was the outstanding candidate. He has 18 years’ experience in the care field. He is head of maintenance but is also incredible around the care home. He goes above and beyond and has established a great rapport with residence. Every day the residents have tea with George at mid-day – brilliant!
The Workforce Development Award
Matt Brunt
Wallsingham Support
Matt’s passion shone through. His desire to train and develop and inspire his team people was inspirational. He creates an inclusive environment that gets everyone involved to deliver real excellence.
The Care Innovator Award
Zoe, Hannah and Emma
The Good Care Group
The Good Care Group stood out in their use of innovation to provide an outstanding service to their customers. They have created their own platform to improve the quality of life for the people they support as well as their carers and families. They support in excess of 700 people and have demonstrated great outcomes by reducing hospital admissions by 60%. A remarkable achievement!
The Care Home Frontline Leader Award
Ann Ayris
Ebury Court Residential Court
Ann takes time to listen to her staff and takes staff with her on her journey to provide best quality care. An inspirational care professional.
The Home Care Frontline Leader Award
Toni Bayliss
Chosen Care Group
Toni leads by example, motivating her team to deliver quality person centred care. Passionate and committed – an inspirational lady.
The Home Care Coordinator Award
Matt Ford
Pillar Care
Matt is an exceptional candidate. He started off in care in a voluntary capacity to now becoming a home care coordinator. He is a credit to his organisation and the sector. He believes in and strives for excellence. He has high standards of himself and the people he manages but also believes passionately that service users can do anything!
The Putting People First/Personalisation Award
Bromhall Road Team
Outlook Care
This was a very close category and the judges were impressed with many of the candidates and the results they achieved for the people in their care. What elevated Bromhall to first place was the clear passion of the team who clearly would break down any wall that was in their way to get what was needed for the people they support. The results they have achieved are miraculous and they have transformed so many lives
The Palliative Care/End of Life Award
Lilette Ebrahinkhan
Cambridge Nursing Home
The hardest part of supporting someone who is dying is the knowledge this is going to happen. It takes special qualities in someone to be able to do this and Lilette has these in abundance. Lilette and team openly talk and share have a memory tree and a yearly celebration of life, to which family are invited
The Good Nurse Award
Michelle Gray
Signature at Epsom
Michelle far surpassed all others in this category with her enthusiasm, skills and knowledge. She demonstrated leadership and managerial experience alongside her sound clinical skills which she ensures are constantly maintained. Her achievements in her current role are inspiring.
The Care Assessor Award
Swathi Sudhakar
Chosen Care Group
Swathi demonstrated strategy and practical examples of care assessments. She is hands on, available to staff and service users and effectively manages her team.
The Unpaid Carer Award
Vasi Palimaru, Precious Homes
In the words of the person who nominated Vasi:
Vasi’s passion for making a difference in people’s lives is evident from that way he speaks, the extra mile he will go to, and the thought and dedication he has for how best to support people.
Vasi’s used to work at Treow House in Houghton Regis but now works in London. This move though doesn’t stop Vasi from freely volunteering his time and helping those who live at Treow House. Vasi will visit the service to help support those who live there and help any new staff get a better understanding of some of those people whom he used to support. Vasi also has a culinary passion and is an excellent cook much to the delight of all those who we support and the staff team and his cooking is legendary. In fact Vasi you owe the Team at Treow another visit!
Outstanding Contribution to Social Care Award
George MacAllister, Director of Care, Glenholme Healthcare Group
In the words of the staff team who nominated George:
With over 45 years’ experience of working in the health and social care sector, George is a dedicated, motivated, inspirational and highly respected ambassador, committed to promoting and developing highly specialist care services for vulnerable people.
His knowledge, understanding and experience is fundamental in developing specialist services specifically for adults with complex challenging behaviours /mental health with drug and or alcohol addiction with forensic histories and his staff.
His passion and relentlessness to deliver quality of care comes from an inner drive to be at the forefront reform for complex individuals.
Lets celebrate social care and help it get the recognition it deserves