Friday 11th November saw over 300 of the very best in social care attended a glittering awards ceremony at The Mercure Hotel, Manchester Picadilly for the finals of the Great North West Care Awards, where the category winners were announced.
The Great North West Care Awards, sponsored by Wells Pharmacy brought together the category finalists from across the North West region.
Shiraz Khan,General Manager of Well Careplus, said: “The Great British care awards are a fantastic organisation, dedicated to raising the profile of the Care Sector and the amazing individuals that champion what the care sector strives to achieve. We are delighted to sponsor the Great British care awards, to help recognise these modern day heroes, that would otherwise go unsung.”
The 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, Alzheimer’s Society, The National Care Forum and The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) 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 front 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.
Winners of the Great North West Care Awards will go through to the final at Birmingham’s ICC in Spring 2017.
The winners of the Great British North West Care Awards, together with the judge’s comments are detailed below:
The Care Employer Award
Care and Share Associates
Partnership model makes them unique in the industry and enables one third profit investment and employees who are highly engaged and have a stake in the organisation and its future. Of particular note was that the model ensures staff retention and continuity of care for the service users.
The Care Home Worker Award
Tracey Libby – Barchester Healthcare
Tracy has worked in Care for the last 19 years. She holds a dual role as a carer and trainer. An inspirational carer who demonstrates a passion and love for her role. She sees all her residents as individuals with their own care needs being met from the highest quality.
The Home Care Worker Award
Minhajjudin (Mani) Patel, Choice Care
Mani is a committed to providing person centred care through an innovative and flexible approach. An exceptionally outstanding home care worker, who is dedicated to his service users and his company. An inspirational care professional.
The Care Newcomer Award
Virginia Perkins, Springhill Care
Appointed to a newly created role, head of HR, just 12 months ago, Virginia’s achievements in terms of employee engagement, people development, incentivisation and leading people to excel, is incredible. Virginia has ensured that people (service users and employees) are a the heart of everything Springhill Care Does
The Care Home Registered Manager Award
Helen Inman – Lavender Hills Care Home, Millenium
Helen’s passion is evident in every pore of her being. Her love and compassion is one I have truly not seen before. I would want to be cared for by Helen without hesitation!
The Home Care Register Manager Award
Elaine Mellor – Care and Share Associates
Elaine has given so much back to a deprived community, creating no only job opportunities but also share schemes incentives for all employees. Her commitment has seen her company grow and achieve two local NHS contracts. Her amazing drive is what makes a worthy winner of this award
The Care Home Cook/Chef Award
Mike Nichols, Barchester Healthcare
Mike is so much more tan ‘just’ The Chef, caring deeply about his role, his team and particularly the residents, actively involved in the life of the home and ensuring excellent patient centred care.
The Dignity in Care Award
Rachel Yates – Making Space
Rachel demonstrated a real commitment to dignity and promoting it within her organisation through her role as a dignity champion. The judges were impressed by her knowledge and passion as well as her recognition that people should be supported to achieve their dreams no matter how other may perceive them.
The Dementia Carer Award
Audrey Appleby – Woodlands Care Group Ltd
Audrey is an inspirational lady who gives true meaning to person centred care – everything she does is about ensuring that individuals are treated with respect, dignity, compassion and most of all love.
The Care Team Award
Alistre Lodge Care Team – J Parker Care Ltd
This team has a genuine enthusiasm for rare demonstrated from the care assistants through o the manager. Each team member seemed to be important. They genuinely made me want to put my name on their waiting list.
The Care Home Activities Co-Ordinator Award
Rebecca Bell – Advinia Health Care
Rebecca is a bubbly, energetic person with lots of person centred ideas for her residents, including getting them outdoors to enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the local lake district area.
The Ancillary Worker Award
Jacqueline Lindsley – Advinia Healthcare Ltd
Jackie came across as a really caring person who goes the extra mile for the residents. She really strives to be positive and to strike the right note for peoples’ moods.
The Care Trainer Award
Kate Jauffur – Belong
Kate is an amazing person, so full of vitality and enthusiasm. She shows true dedication to training and developing all her staff within her place of work
The Care Innovator Award
Michelle Dennett – Creativity in Care
Michelle demonstrates passion and innovation in the development of a successful charitable and community service, providing support to people living in care homes, which focuses on creative arts and horticulture as a vehicle to reduce isolation and increase participation, engagement, self-esteem and therefore quality of life.
The Frontline Leaders Award
Julie Wright, Barchester Healthcare
Demonstrating a passion for the provision of high standards of person –centred services for resident, Julie ensures everyone is treated as an individual. She has a clear commitment to learning and development for her staff and for her own development in order to ensure the necessary skills and values are in place to deliver high quality care and support
The Home Care Co-ordinator
Dawn Back, Potens Group
Dawn’s enthusiasm and passion is infectious. She has identified a gap in community services to develop a dom care service fit for purpose. An innovative and dedicated individual who puts the service users and staff at the heart of everything.
The Putting People First Award
Clare Donegan- Kavanagh Place
Putting People first is at the heart of everything at Kavanagh Place. Embracing the principles of promoting independence, choice and dignity to empower the people they support.
The Palliative Carer
Nicola Johnstone – Belong
The environment and ethos shown y Nicola is exemplary ensuring the final sunset is the best for the resident. The way family are involved is also fantastic. A true hero.
The Good Nurse Award
John Summerton – Belong
John started working at Belong after the death of his sister. He spoke passionately about the culture and ethos of Belong. Through working in this environment he acts at all times in a person centred role.
The Outstanding Contribution to Social Care Award
Ken Nolan, Springhill Care
Ken Nolan has worked tirelessly for over 32 years to deliver the highest quality care. Ken is driven by the values of social care, and the services which Ken leads, are beacons of quality and innovation and are always connected to the local community.
Ken Nolan’s contribution to the care sector goes far beyond the services that he leads and delivers, he is a true sector champion and a great ambassador for the entire sector.
For more information on The Great British Care Awards please visit our web site at www.care-awards.co.uk
Lets celebrate social care and help it get the recognition it deserves