Friday 25th October saw over 400 of the very best in social care attended a glittering awards ceremony at Aston Gate Stadium, Bristol, for the finals of the Great South West Care Awards, where the category winners were announced.
The Great South West 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 Gloucestershire Providers Association, Care & Support West, 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 South West Care Awards will go through to the final at Birmingham’s ICC on 20th March 2020.
The winners of the Great South West Care Awards, together with the judge’s comments are detailed below:
Care Home Employer
Gloucestershire Charities Trust
The trust described themselves as a forward thinking, innovative organisation. They stood out for their enthusiasm and dedicated for their staff. The trust told us how they nurture and invest in their staff. We were particularly impressed at the lengths they go to support and develop their staff.
Home Care Employer
St Jude’s Care
Valuing, rewarding and training staff are strongly embedded in the organisation, ensuring a clear career pathway and impressive staff retention.
Care Home Worker
Jon Lee, Oldway Heights Ltd
Jon is personable, bubbly and enthusiastic about his role. He is positive about a ‘care for life’ career and confident that he will progress. Jon has achieved a great balance of personal and social care along with the administration necessary to place the people he cares for at the centre of all decision making.
Home Care Worker
Mary Cassidy, Shared Lives
Mary creates a home from home for those staying with her for rest bite, even keeping mementos and familiar items for people staying regularly – Dr Who theme for example! Mary balances the needs of those staying with her to ensure their safety and wellbeing, feels like a second parent to some. Recently supported a couple to celebrate 25th wedding anniversary by providing respite for their 21-year-old son with complex needs. They had never had any form of holiday due to sons’ complex needs. What a woman!
Care Home Newcomer
Shelby Lacey, Manor Community
Wow! Shelby has made a huge impact to the sector in such a short space of time. She works across elderly, learning disabilities and mental health and has a diverse and innovative approach to care and support.
Home Care Newcomer
Louise Payne, Dimensions
Very new to care but really wants to do her absolute best for her two clients with learning disabilities. Loves teaching her clients the small things like how to use a knife and fork. She wants to learn Makaton so she can better communicate with her client who is deaf.
The Care Home Registered Manager
Wendy Marsh, Brandon Care
The hardest decision from 4 years of judging, there were 4 deserving winners. This person stood out with their ethos of offering a great life not just a great service home from home giving people a real sense of purpose and belonging. A nurturing approach for all and commitment to continual improvement over many years.
The Home Care Registered Manager
Sally Rhodes, Innovations Wiltshire
Sally demonstrated she considered the wellbeing of her staff very important. She ensures they come into the office every week to ick up their rotas so any problems can be picked up quickly by her. Sally ‘makes staff feel important as I’m aware it is a very difficult job’. Clients are encouraged to regularly give feedback, and this is communicated to her staff.
The Care Home Cook/Chef
Michelle Strode, Kings Manor Care Home
Michelle demonstrated what a ‘mealtime experience’ really means for older people, involving people who live at the home to prepare and lay tables, do a few dishes and empowering them to make choices – ‘making it for them’. Michelle was passionate about using fresh and natural methods to meet dietary requirements, holding themed events and making sure the food prepared was visually appealing for people with dementia.
The Dignity in Care Award
Karolina Nowadaczy, Brunelcare
Karolina demonstrated how important dignity is within care. Karolina respected each person and looked at a difference in dignity to it not just being about physical preferences but also respecting a person’s wellbeing and how they might be feeling. Working with the local GP and partners she has been able to really show the meaning of dignity along with having the courage to challenge when needed
The Dementia Carer Award
Sophie Bishop, Porthaven
Sophie shows a passion for her work and is full of enthusiasm which is infectious. She takes great pleasure from small successes which can be huge achievements for the resident, and their successes empowering the individuality of her residents and makes her love the job even more.
The Care Home Team Award
Winash Rest Home, Winash Ltd
Natasha and Heather run an inspirational service focused on continuously improving their interactions with the local community. Staff retention is high. Staff are empowered and invested in, and all play a vital role. All are fiercely dedicated; nothing is ever too much; initiative and ideas are welcomed and fostered to ensure lives remain full and have genuine meaning and value.
The Home Care Team Award
Acorn to Oak Homecare Ltd
Genuinely want to think differently for their service users. Did not allow barriers to prevent support being given. 24 hours mean 24 hours, great relationship between the two representatives from the company was evident.
The Care Home Activity Organiser
Alex Petersen, Barchester Healthcare
Alex wins because of his enthusiasm for his role, his obvious skills in putting people at ease and his motivating personality. The judges were impressed by his use of reflective practice and his part in helping the service receive an outstanding rating.
The Ancillary Worker Award
Lianne Peters, Barchester Healthcare
Lianne has won due to her strong values. She goes the extra mile for the people she works with in her role on the domestic team. She impressed the judges with her understanding of how important good communication and time builds positive and meaningful relationships.
The Workforce Development Award
CTS Training Team, Community Integrated Care
The CTS training team expressed high values, passion and a caring attitude to all aspects of workforce development – it is evident that they support all levels of staff. They are keen to keep abreast of new knowledge and skills necessary to assist complex needs of a close family environment.
The Care Innovator Award
John Hughes, Community Integrated Care
The focus and passion shown by these innovators is so positive. The development of Opportunities for individuals to be part of the community, feel involved and to feel free is outstanding. Such a wonderful partnership, with the potential to reach so many.
The Frontline Leader Award
James Sainsbury, Community Integrated Care
James’ approach to leadership is balanced and engaging. He understands the need to lead by example, coaching staff and valuing opinion. His focus on people he cares for and supporting them to take positive risk and achieve good outcomes is admirable.
The Home Care Coordinator Award
Sue Jackson, Crossroads Care
We chose this person because we felt she was passionate, empathetic, professional and understood the needs of the carers and the ‘cared for’. She demonstrated good leadership and communication skills which ensured staff could deliver effective care.
The Putting People First/Personalisation Award
Bex Marshall, Dame Hannah Rogers Trust
Bex showed clear innovation initiatives which benefitted her service users of the wider community. Media and social media projects gave the service user a voice in a real way. She appeared to be constantly looking to improve and appreciate the things which gave a smile to people.
The Palliative Care/End of Life Award
Jane Reynolds, St Monica Trust
The way this lady talked about her job made me feel I would like her to be there if I had a loved one dying. She was so gentle, passionate and compassionate and looks after everyone, the dying person, their family and all the staff with the same gentle ease.
The Good Nurse Award
Reuben Collings, Milestones Trust
Reuben really demonstrated the importance of being a good nurse. With a wide range of experience, he can demonstrate a wide skill set. Reuben had a clear understanding of the need to develop his skills and why training was important to his role but also his colleagues. A true passion was shown for what he does.
Unpaid Carer
Angie Emrys-Jones and Sandy Lawrence, Time 2 Shine
Angie and Sandy would describe themselves as ‘just mums’ but they are far more than that. Together they have taken lack of opportunity and engagement in Cornwall by the horns and shaken it up with the Time 2 Shine initiative,
The group provides structured outdoor activities and events for young people with disabilities. The project supports some of the older participants to become deputies for the entire service, taking on management responsibilities. This gives them skills for future life and employment and enables them to realise their potential.
It also provides other children and young people with relatable role models, boosting their confidence and aspirations. The time talent and effort they put into this amazing life altering service freely is phenomenal!
The Outstanding Contribution to Social Care Award
Della Gilby, CEO of D&L Support
This worthy winner is uncompromising in her belief that everyone deserves the very best care and support possible. She cares deeply about caring and has taken three of their homes to Outstanding within an eighteen month period, always ensuring that the people they support are at the very centre of everything they do. This is often through innovative ideas to support the very vulnerable people in their charge.
They are also a role model to the local care market through their co-chairing the of local Care Association. Always undertaking additional responsibilities to ensure that the care market is thriving and implementing best practice.
Tina Seymour, CEO of the Charity, Hope for Tomorrow, recently said that she was ‘personally touched by going above and beyond having undertaken the act of braving the shave raising vital funds to support the work of the charity.’
Lets celebrate social care and help it get the recognition it deserves