Friday 30th November saw over 500 of the very best in social care attended a glittering awards ceremony at Edgbaston Stadium, Birmingham for the finals of the Great West Midlands Care Awards, where the category winners were announced.
The Great West 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.
Sponsored by Access Health and Social Care, sector support also 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 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 West Midlands Care Awards will go through to the final at Birmingham’s ICC on 8th March 2019.
The winners of the Great British West Midlands Care Awards, together with the judge’s comments are detailed below:
The Care Employer Award
El Marsh Care
Person centred in both the approach to staff and service users. El Marsh Care put their service users wellbeing and happiness at the heart of everything they do.
The Care Home Worker Award
Kelly Russell – Pathways Care Group
Kelly showed such passion and determination to integrate those who access the service she works for. She has been working in the role since 1997 and showed a drive into helping people engage. Kelly had a strong team ethic and demonstrated a selfless approach.
The Home Care Worker Award
Kim Odlum – Archangel Enterprises
Kim brings humour and sunshine into her clients’ lives She is dedicated, caring and a real asset to the sector.
The Care Home Newcomer Award
Earl Edwards – Avery Healthcare
Earl has worked in Avery Healthcare for 1 year, he has a passion for caring for staff, residents and families. He does this not only a being a fantastic carer whilst at work but also fundraising outside of work and volunteering with residents on day trips etc on his days off. He regards staff and residents alike as family and is a true entertainer. Such an inspiring character – we are judges can feel the love and care he ‘oozes’ such a positive outlook on like – nothing too much trouble! This man has passion and dedication and will go far.
The Home Care Newcomer Award
Carl Henson – Mobile Care Services
Carl is dedicated to providing person centred care to his clients, going aove and beyond to improve wellbeing and promoting independence.
The Care Home Registered Manager Award
Paul Quirk – Kingfisher Court
Paul has implemented and adopted a different model, ethos and culture. Salaried staff and an environment of openness, inclusion and empowerment are at the heart of this. His passion and drive for excellence shine through when he talks about his work, and it is clear he puts his heart and soul into delivering excellence everyday. “A normal guy who cared”.
The Home Care Registered Manager Award
Victoria Richardson – Dimensions UK
A truly inspirational lady who has continued to put the care and support of others less fortunate than her at the forefront of everything, An amazing lady who inspires people to be the best they can be.
The Care Home Cook/Chef Award
Lorraine Ashby – Anchor
After 15 years of agency/corporate catering Lorraine is passion about getting to know every resident on a one to one basis. Lorraine loves nothing more than getting new recipes from the residents, which then get added to the menu. Lorraine loves her job and thinks of the residents as part of her family.
The Dignity in Care Award
Marion Payne – The Garth Nursing and Residential Home
Marion is amazingly passionate about ensuring dignity and respect are not only maintained but promoted at every opportunity.
The Dementia Carer Award
Jane Hewitt – Marrow House – Stoke on Trent City Council
Jane has dedicated her working life to improving lives of people living with dementia. She is passionate about improving outcomes and works innovatively with other professionals by adopting a person centred approach to all she does.
The Care Home Team Award
Team Highwell – Herefordshire Care Homes
A very fun, energetic team, who are always looking to strive. They demonstrated the teamwork ethos and shared passionate stories of where they have made a difference to the lives of the residents.
The Home Care Team Award
All staff at Knightlow Coventry City Council – Housing with Care
We understand that there are many challenges we face within social care, but the care the vulnerable people receive would not make a difference to them of their families unless it wasn’t for the teams who provide the care. It was a great honour to hear from all our nominees and the great inspirational work they do on a daily basis, which is recognised today. People at knights have demonstrated passion, team spirit and a sense of a family community to support each other through difficulties and fun times.
The Care Home Activities Organiser Award
Paul Dixon – Mil House Care Home
Paul showed innovation and forward thinking in his role as an activity coordinator. He operated an approach of integrating the whole of the home to participate. Paul demonstrated community involvement with his approach and overcame many barriers to maximise the choice of activities within the home he works in.
The Ancillary Worker Award
Kay Walker – Sanctuary care
Kay is more than just a housekeeper. She encompasses many roles she embraces all of these and has forges relationships with all the residents to improve outcomes and enhance wellbeing.
The Care Trainer Award
Adam Payne – Accord
Adam has reviewed the way they train, done extensive research and rolled out a revolutionary training model which he talks about with great rigour and passion. He is very engaging and keen to share his knowledge and learning at all opportunities. Care quality is a priority along with understanding the individual and Adam’s attitude embodies this.
The Care Innovator Award
Claire Smeeth – Crossroad Care Forest of Dean and Herefordshire
Claire demonstrated person centred individual care to her residents that visited the day care facility. Her passion shone through and her active living project enabled everyone involved to feel part of the community and enjoyed the end result.
The Care Home Frontline Leaders Award
Katy Russell – Condover College Limited
Katy’s passion and drives shows clearly when she talks about her role and why she is in the care industry. Her love for her job, her residents and team comes through in everything she does, and her determination to ensure she gives independence to her residents is amazing. Katy has such a big heart and truly deserves this award.
The Home Care Frontline Leaders Award
Jason Wildman – Choices Care
Jason leads by example, motivating his team to provide outcome focussed, person centred care. An asset to the sector!
The Home Care Co-ordinator Award
Jenna and Amy – Care Plus
The judges wanted to work with these ladies. Their energy, passion and commitment were infectious. They had a hands-on approach and full understanding of all aspects of the role due to working their way up the ladder. They lead their team by listening, talking and a real sense of fun. Brilliant ladies with a crazy passion for this lifestyle not work.
The Putting People First/Personalisation Award
Tammy Perchard – Brandon Trust
Tammy has faced adversity, developed herself to put herself in a position to be able to change somebody’s life. Tammy and her team supported an individual in developing confidence, working through his behaviour to finally be integrated back into the community after being hospitalised for 7 years and numerous failed attempts by other providers.
The Good Nurse Award
Trudi Barnett – Herefordshire Care Homes
Trudi is very passionate, not only about nursing but also correct practice. She is the nurse you want looking after your loved ones with her warm nature, morals and ethos and her particular eye for detail.
The Palliative Care/End of Life Award
Jan Wilson – Heritage Manor, Newstead House
Jan brought an immediate professional warmth to the table. It was apparent from early on that her knowledge, skill and vast experience was a priceless asset to her company. Jan came across as an empathetic care giver for end of life and a huge role model and mentor to the care team, she not only gave great dedication to hold standard framework but also helped with additional working practices to bring benefit to end of life pathway. She is a great communicator to all walks of life and is a very respected member of her team!
The Housing With Care Award
Kelly Hill – Coventry Extra Care, Anchor
Kelly was passionate about her work, clear about her role and understood her service users. Kelly impressed with her focus on multidisciplinary working to achieve the best outcome for her service users. For us, what set Kelly apart was her equal focus on her staff team speaking with pride and joy about their joint success.
The Unpaid Carers Award
Tracey Hemming – Freedom Day Centre
In the words of the person who nominated Tracey:
“Tracey opened up the Freedom Disco in 2016 following the closure of a disco for people with learning disabilities which her son attended.
From this she worked and fundraised for a bus to help transport service users to the disco free of charge to save taxi fees. Due to the huge success of the disco Tracey decided to open the Freedom Day Centre in July 2017.
This has gone from strength to strength with service users developing and achieving new things each and every day. Tracey fund raises for everything at the centre and helps provide service users with great opportunists such a recent trip for a private tour of the Houses of Parliament. She is always looking for new adventures and experiences to develop service users.
Tracey has a great relationship with all service users and is highly thought of in the community also opening a cafe which service users work in developing social skills. There is so much more to say but I’ll end it here Tracey is a really inspirational woman who’s puts herself last and others first.”
The Outstanding Contribution to Social Care Award
Alison Bentley – Head of Care – Anchor
In the words of her team who nominated her:
“Alison has been a beacon for exceptionally high care quality throughout her long career. She has held senior roles in a range of national providers and made a positive impact wherever she has worked.
As Director of Care for Anchor’s Central region Alison has led a major change program to drive up compliance and customer satisfaction while building an effective and supportive senior team. Alison has been a central part of Anchor’s senior management team and is an unflappable presence and a joy to work with.”
Lets celebrate social care and help it get the recognition it deserves