On Friday 8th March, over 1,000 of the very best in social care attended a glittering awards ceremony at Birmingham’s ICC, for the national finals of the Great British Care Awards, where the overall category winners were announced.
The Great British Care Home Awards, hosted by Care England and supported by The Access Group, brought together the winners from the nine regional Great British Care Awards held in Autumn 2018. Winners from each region were invited to compete once again to become the national champions.
Sector support includes the Department of Health, The National Care Forum, Alzheimer’s Society and the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) as well as commercial organisations.
There are a total of twenty one award 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, and specialist care in areas such as dementia and innovation.
Professor Martin Green OBE, chief executive of Care England said,
“Social care work is one of the most difficult, and at the same time, one of the most spiritually rewarding careers. People who work in social care, make a huge difference to the lives of the people they work with, and are some of society’s unsung heroes.
The Great British Care Awards looks to redress the lack of recognition that people who work in social care receive, and is recognising and rewarding the very best in the social care workforce, giving them praise and respect for the transformational work that they do every day.”
The national winners of the Great British Care Awards 2019, together with the judge’s comments, are detailed below:
The Care Employer Award
Shine Partnerships Ltd
The Shine Partnership was able to demonstrate their passion and commitment to making a difference to their employees and the people they support. They work in partnership with various stakeholders which enables a fuller joined up service along with support for gainful employment for the service users.
The Care Home Worker Award
Norma Jewitt, Pathways Care Group
Norma was inspirational. Her innovative approach to get ‘what she wants’ for her residents shone through. Her vision for meeting outcomes for people demonstrated to the judges her passion and vision for success.
The Home Care Worker Award
Isabel Ngwenya, Shine Partnerships Ltd
Isbael came across as a specialised, professional and supportive person. She works with a challenging client group and has an ability to adapt to different working environments within the forensic mental health sector. She is capable of monitoring and supporting new members of staff, is client focused to a high degree and supports people with life skills.
The Care Home Newcomer Award
Katie Davock, Anchor
Despite only having worked in care for two and a half years and with no previous experience, Katie was incredibly enthusiastic about her role and demonstrated an understanding of person-centred care beyond her years. We’ve no doubt that she will go far in her career.
The Home Care Newcomer Award
Daisy Aitken, Care Dynamics
Daisy’s happy and positive persona shone through. A refreshing and inspirational candidate that focuses on making a difference every day even after a long commute to start work. Daisy’s mum is so proud of her and Daisy herself says ‘If my teachers could see me now, they wouldn’t believe it!’ A worthy winner!
The Care Home Registered Manager Award
Karleen Taylor-Williams, Crown Care Group
Karleen is passionate about her role and rises to the challenge to deliver the best. She will challenge ‘the norm’ to ensure people can live their life in the community. She always strives to find a way to get the best outcome and has developed her team and herself outside of their comfort zone to benefit the service. Her management team has developed to ensure the service is well led at all times.
The Home Care Registered Manager Award
Leanne Scrogham, Human Support Group
Leanne has faced huge challenges starting with a failing service and disenfranchised staff. She has turned this into an Outstanding service by sheer persistence and determination whilst managing three locations in a country wide rural area.
The Care Home Cook/Chef Award
Callum Stoneham, Barchester Healthcare
Callum has had a major change of direction in his career. Although unsure of his future initially, he managed to persevere and overcome the existing challenges and has become a key member of staff. He has an ability to empathise with service users and develop a rapport and has often gone the extra mile, for example when he recognised how important lobster was to a palliative resident. Callum has worked using his own initiative and built the catering and kitchen department to what it is today.
The Dignity in Care Award
Marion Payne, The Garth Care Services
Marion was very person centred and talked about giving people a voice. Promoting dignity, respect and inclusion, Marion has adopted a calm and caring approach and has successfully achieved and implementing the Gold Standard Framework Platinum standard.
The Dementia Carer Award
St John’s Care Home
The Dementia Carers at this home inspired us with their passion and innovation to enabling people living with dementia and their families to live a full and meaning life.
The Care Home Team Award
Bramley Court, Carebase
This team are an inspirational group of care professionals working and supporting each other in order to a deliver a highly person centred approach to exercise, promoting choice, independence and wellbeing.
The Home Care Team Award
Melanie Castillo, Consensus Support
Melanie and her team demonstrated outstanding dedication and commitment to the people they support. We felt inspired by her drive to change people’s lives which were routed in strong values based approach, showing innovative solutions to person centred care.
The Care Home Activities Organiser Award
Jo Whitehouse, Sonnet Care Homes Ltd
Wow! Jo has such a passion for providing meaningful activities and her energy and enthusiasm are to be commended. She is innovative and has a fantastic drive as a true team leader. Well done Jo, you are a credit to your company.
The Ancillary Worker Award
Christopher Sogorski, Hill Care
Christophe adds an extra dimension to quality care and genuinely improves the quality of lives of the residents. He has developed and runs a Gentleman’s Club, an oceanic themed corridor and a garden area with a beach and BBQ. Where possible he will include residents in his maintenance duties.
The Care Trainer Award
Sangita Maharjan, Chosen Care Group
Passionate and innovative, Sangita stood out to the judges for her commitment to work with diverse staff providing care and support in the community. She goes the extra mile by bringing in ‘the mum’s test’ and her carers are asked to bring their mums to a training day to think about person centred care. Fabulous!
The Care Innovator Award
Kelly Roberts, Outlook Care
After attending a learning disabilities conference Kelly was so moved to change the way his clients visited the GP. His passion drove him to contact and work with the GP to create a ‘gold card’ scheme which gave his highly anxious clients priority visits. Taking this further, Kelly also introduced a ‘quiet waiting room’ to further reduce anxiety.
The Care Home Frontline Leaders Award
Stacey Orton, Sun Healthcare Ltd
Stacey is an inspirational young lady. She has enabled the team to support service users to take positive risks by working more flexibly. One family commented that all their lives had been changed for the better.
The Home Care Frontline Leaders Award
Tanya Lowe, Continued Care
Tanya is a very positive role model, professional and caring. She is a leader who understands that the little things really matter and make the difference.
The Home Care Coordinator Award
Carola Martinez, Care 1st Homecare
Carola runs a branch on her own and has a work ethic to be commended. She is very dedicated to her role, very supportive to her team and has developed the care standard. A passionate and genuine caring professional.
The Care Assessor Award
Brian McNaught, Anchor
Brian demonstrated a clear vision, passion and dedication to the people in his care, families and staff. He demonstrated innovation and creativity to make sure personalised plans reflected complex care.
The Housing With Care Award
Andrea Lyon, Community Integrated Care
Andrea demonstrated a strong drive to deliver person centred service, showcasing a number of examples of how her and her team have made a difference to the quality of individuals lives. A very worthy winner, congratulations Andrea.
The Putting People First Award
Laurel Leaf Support and Care
From initially providing home care for learning disabilities they have a strong focus on addressing social isolation bringing service users together. Service users are motivated to learn life skills and complete ‘training’ bespoke to their individual needs and are empowered to be the best they can be. Steve exemplified how the service user owned that club. What a great team, keep on making that difference!
The Palliative/End of Life Award
Karen Shingler, Belong
Karen is passionate, driven, professional and very dynamic. She recognises the importance of supporting and guiding staff to give quality care constantly working to improve end of life care.
The Good Nurse Award
Silvia Nunes, Ford Place Nursing Home, Stow Healthcare
Silvia represents the very best in nursing in a care home setting. She is innovative, creative, passionate and goes the extra mile for residents, their families and her staff. She gives people the value and dignity they deserve. She strives to promote high quality nursing within her staff team and is an excellent role model.
The Unpaid Carer Award
Rotherham Dementia Support Volunteers, Making Space
This inspirational team are all aged over 70 and have volunteered at a number of dementia cafes for over a decade. Clocking up over a thousand hours of volunteering between them each year, the group has supported hundreds of people during their time as volunteers. All have previously cared for loved ones with a dementia diagnosis and said they wanted to use their experience to help others.
The Outstanding Contribution to Social Care Award
Linzi Sim, Esland Care
Linzi shone through as someone driven to always achieve the best possible outcome for her service users. Delivering remarkable results and displaying a bravery and passion for her work, the judges were particularly impressed with the contribution and impact Linzi is having in social care.
Lets celebrate social care and help it get the recognition it deserves