Thursday 30th November saw over 400 of the very best in social care attended a glittering awards ceremony at The Marriott Gosforth Park, Newcastle for the finals of the Great North East Awards, where the category winners were announced.
The Great North East 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 North East Care Awards will go through to the final at Birmingham’s ICC in Spring 2018.
The winners of the Great British North East Care Awards, together with the judge’s comments are detailed below:
The Care Employer Award
Nurtured Care
Nurtured care describe success as receiving positive feedback from service users. They employ creative people who deliver person centred care and are committed to develop their team through training. Well done!
The Care Home Worker Award
Jessica Pounder, Kingsway Nursing Home
Jessica is an amazing carer who supports the people she looks after in a kind and compassionate way. She is conscientious, compassionate and caring and promotes the rights of the residents within the home. Well done Jessica!
The Home Care Worker Award
Sharron Finney, Direct Health
Sharon is reliable and known as a ‘safe pair of hands’, both to those she cares for and her colleagues. She likes to help to make the most of everyday for those she sees and is a shining example of what outstanding care looks like. Sharron dedicates this win to her late parents, well done Sharon.
The Care Newcomer Award
Charlotte Rispin, Lifeways Community Care
Charlotte is a committed and caring individual whose passion for care is inspiring. She described an activity for residents which was a disco and said ‘when I see them dance and happy it gives me goosebumps.’
The Care Home Registered Manager Award
Mark Culley, Barchester
Mark is a devoted manager who with the staff has contributed to a good CQC rating for the home. He likes to go home knowing his residents and staff feel good because they’ve made small changes. Well done Mark on this well deserved award!
The Home Care Registered Manager Award
Michelle Jackson, Caremark Redcar and Cleveland
Michelle showed dedication and passion to ensure the customers in her care receive a high standard of care provided by a motivated and skilled staff team
The Care Home Cook/Chef Award
Judith Woolrych, Anchor
Judith loves to put a smile on her clients dace by preparing their favourite meal. She believes good presentation is vital as people eat with their eyes. She has a good understanding of various diets and takes her time to involve service users in their meal planning.
The Dignity in Care Award
Anthony Bage, Anchor
Anthony believes that ‘dignity is to be valued, not something you gain. You are born with it, the smallest detail can make the biggest difference.’ He is an enthusiastic individual about care who is devoted to those he supports.
The Dementia Carer Award
Andrew Cole, The Avalon Group
For Andrew supporting people with dementia as he says ‘doesn’t feel like a job’. Andrew believes in making a difference and impressed judges with his conscientious approach in understanding the person and their life story. He points out that connecting with the family is as important when providing good support to people with dementia.
The Care Team Award
Darlington Extra Care Services, Making Space
This team demonstrated a real passion for promoting wellbeing and empowering service users to live independently. They support one another to support the service users.
The Care Home Activities Co-ordinator Award
Chris Nicholson and Susanne Richardson, Akari Care
Chris and Susanne make a real difference, they are connected to both the physical and emotional needs of their residents in the activities they provide, they do some inspirational activities that brought a tear to the judges eyes.
The Ancillary Worker Award
Janet Finley, Lifeways Community Care
Watching residents have fun and seeing their faces light up is important to Janet. She goes above and beyond for her residents assisting them to access concerts, developing a sensory garden and being very hands on with the many activities in the home.
The Care Trainer Award
Caremark, Redcar and Cleveland
The team showed clear goals around their training. They are truly committed to working with their client, clients families and staff to ensure they deliver bespoke person centred training.
The Care Innovator Award
Lisa Elliot, Gateshead Council
Lisa showed her passion and dedication for supporting people live a meaningful life. She shared excellent enthusiasm to making a difference, this award is well deserved.
The Frontline Leaders Award
Audrey Nisbet, Shadden House, Gateshead Council
Audrey is committed and passionate about working with people who have dementia and works to help rehabilitate people to go back to their own homes. She follows to ‘never say never’ when it comes to support. A very worthy winner.
The Home Care Co-ordinator Award
Emma Stansil, Prioritising Peoples Lives
Emma has an inspiring passion for care after 6 years of caring for one complex individual. Emma spent Christmas day with the client and although he wasn’t verbal he simply smiled. In Emma’s words that was her favourite Christmas. She is a truly caring individual.
The Care Assessor/Care Planner Award
April Armstrong, Anchor
April leads a team and leads by example. Person centred planning to achieve outcomes for every client is at the heart of every assessment and plan. She is a true credit to anchor!
The Putting People First/Personalisation Award
Rapid Response, Gateshead Council
Rapid response in crisis situations provide care unique to individuals and their circumstances while preventing admission to care or hospital. Their commitment and hard work is evident, well done.
The Good Nurse Award
Lynne Shaw, Eastwood Promoting Independence Centre , NHS
Lynne works to build on the success of Gateshead for people living in care homes, helping to transform services to improve the well being of older people by improving the skills of staff. She truly is an outstanding nurse.
The Palliative Care/End of Life Award
Scott Powell, Nurtured Care
Scott clearly demonstrates the importance of person centred end of life planning. He is committed to building relationships both with the patient and the wider multidisciplinary team to reach the best outcome. He is warm and caring, very much deserving recognition – well done Scott!
The Outstanding Contribution to Social Care Award
Andrew Key, Managing Director, Choice Care
Andrew has been in domiciliary care for over 18 years. In that time he has built a successful company that provides a high ability service. He is always looking for new ways to improve the service and achieve the best outcomes for the people we provide services to.
He put a lot of work into achieving accreditation with the local hospice for End of Life Care. He sources lots of training for carers to improve their skills, which in turn reflects on the care provided.
Andrew has been an inspiration to many staff over the years and encourages them to achieve their best potential. He recently introduced fixed shifts which is a first on the community, which allows better consistency for the service users and more time off for the carers. He really is an inspiration.