Friday 17th November saw over 300 of the very best in social care attended a glittering awards ceremony at The East Midlands Conference Centre for the finals of the Great East Midlands Care Awards, where the category winners were announced.
The Great East Midlands Care Awards are part of the Great British Care Awards, a series of 9 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 includes Care England, The Department of Health, The National Care Forum, The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG), as well as local authorities and 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 innovation.
Winners of the Great East Midlands Care Awards will go through to the final at Birmingham’s ICC in Spring 2018.
The winners of the Great British East Midlands Care Awards, together with the judge’s comments are detailed below:
The Care Employer Award
Ashmere Derbyshire
There is a palpable sense that the employees at Ashmere are an extended family. Staff are empowered to help deliver good outcomes for residents and to make someone’s day.
The Care Home Worker Award
Ann Wardaugh, Cinnamon Care Collection
A dedicated and passionate care professional who goes above and beyond in putting her service users first. Well done Ann!
The Home Care Worker Award
Helen Branley, Age UK, Leicestershire and Rutland
Helen’s caring and empathetic nature shone through, throughout the interview process. She often goes over and above what her role requires and is a committed and well-respected individual.
The Care Newcomer Award
Sharnie Richards, Milford Care
Sharnie’s influence to get into elderly care was her grandmother and through wanting to improve her quality of life. This philosophy now follows with every resident at Milford Care and she goes above and beyond.
The Care Home Registered Manager Award
Diane Dunn, Heritage Care Ltd
The home managed by Dianne appears to offer a wonderful array of activities to stimulate residents and staff. It is obviously a happy home which can be described as a close family
The Home Care Registered Manager Award
Emma Hassan, Direct Health
Emma has obviously gained the trust and recognition of the staff and customers alike. She turned round a service with difficulties to a service rated Good in just two years, by addressing issues up front with sensitivity and creativity
The Care Home Cook/Chef Award
Karren Cheriton, Milford Care
Karen is passionate about her role and has introduced a number of initiatives to improve nutrition and hydration. These include show trays, cake decorating activities as well as introducing smoothies milkshakes.
The Dignity in Care Award
Christina Tait, Community Care Solutions
Christina’s desire to go the extra mile to ensure that the dignity of the residents at Aspen House is respected stood out, even in a category filled with exceptional candidates. Well done Christina!
The Dementia Carer Award
Jade Wardle, Milford Care
It was a hard decision as all the candidates in this category were amazing! Jade’s commitment to her residents showed exceptional undertaking of dementia and her compassion shone through.
The Care Team Award
Asra House Residential
Asra House present an excellent example of delivering a multi-cultural diverse service by a dedicated resident lead team. They are credited for celebrating Asian lifestyle within residential care.
The Care Home Activities Co-ordinator Award
Deborah Coppin, Morton Grange
Deborah began volunteering at Morton Grange when her mum became a resident there, and progressed into the role of activities. She holds the philosophy of engaging the whole team in continuous activity with their residents and adapts the home environment to give sensory stimulation to all residents.
The Ancillary Worker Award
Kim Morris, Morton Grange
Kim shows remarkable care and flexibility in her role, always looking to meet the desires of residents. She has also recently developed a conversation workshop which has been very well received.
The Care Trainer Award
Sheumu Nessa, Choices Care
Shemu demonstrated an excellent process for co-ordinating training and ensuring induction and refresher training was timely and inclusive. Her development of a directory of standards in 17 different languages available online was impressive.
The Care Innovator Award
Rosemary Proctor & Elaine Bagguley, Nottinghamshire County Council
The ‘Talk-About’ groups a the Gedling Day Service is an innovative way of involving service users in creating story books with hidden messages about overcoming differences. A great example of co-production at its best!
The Frontline Leaders Award
Jess Brookes, Macintyre
Jess is a dedicated individual who is passionate about delivering person centred care to assist their service users to achieve their goals. A worthy winner!
The Home Care Co-ordinator Award
Will Kettyles, Right At Home (Derby)
Will is a well deserved winner and has demonstrated a high level of care and co-ordination knowledge when working with a dispersed work force. Congratulations Will!
The Care Assessor/Care Planner Award
Rebecca Hale, Premier Care
Rebecca is a truly deserving winner. Her professionalism, dedication has resulted in outstanding person centred care for her service users.
The Putting People First Award
Toller Road Team, Danshell Health care
Danshell Toller Road have executed exceptional levels of creativity to ensure all residents are put first and incorporated into all activities, with brilliant out the box thinking.
The Palliative Care/End of Life Award
Janine Thornton, Milford Care
Jennie’s experience, knowledge and understanding of end of life care, enables her to make service users final days comfortable as well as exceptional support to the family
The Good Nurse Award
Gary Spooner, DE Healthcare
Gary is a passionate dedicated clinical lead who sees his role as a way of life leading, a confident professional team to enhance the lives of others.
The Unpaid Carers Award
Albert Dooley
Albert’s wife came to Morton Grange from another care home in May 2013, when her needs grew more complex. Despite being 92 years old, Albert, (who still drives) visits her twice a day. Before she went into care, he looked after her full-time at home which was no small undertaking.
Albert volunteers for Morton Grange as a bingo caller, running weekly session. He also enjoys helping residents in other activities with the utmost patience and kindness. He regularly volunteers to go out on trips assisting and supporting his wife and others. His kindness and enthusiasm for life is infectious and he is great company.
He has made many friends amongst staff, residents and relatives. He will often give advice and encouragement or simply lend an ear. He even waits to do his daily newspaper crossword with the residents.
The staff at Morton Grange has great respect for this wonderful gentleman, who clearly loves his wife with all of his heart.
The Outstanding Contribution to Social Care Award
June and Malcolm Rye, Morton Grange
June and Malcolm Rye have dedicated over 30 years of their lives to the leadership of Morton Grange. They were inspired to establish the service after their son was diagnosed with a serious illness. The home opened shortly after he made a full recovery and has been growing and developing ever since.
Starting as a 26 bed home and expanded to 66 beds in 1993 – the final architecture of the purpose built addition was largely Malcolm’s own design. Soon after Careline, the company’s domiciliary care service, was established.
June genuinely views staff, service users and relatives as an extension of her own family. Her residents’ needs and well-being have always been top priority. She buys every resident a personal gift for Christmas and works hard to acknowledge staff achievements. She also spends Christmas day with residents, relatives and staff at Morton Grange every year.
Malcolm’s responsibilities go far beyond typical Directorial decisions; he participates fully in every aspect of business operations. Meeting weekly with his registered managers and key staff helps him keep abreast of developments and ensure that Morton Grange stays one step ahead. He encourages innovation and improvement within the service and is always on hand to lend support
After 30 years of tireless dedication to social care and June and Malcolm are much deserving winners of this special accolade.