Friday 13th November saw over 300 of the very best in social care attended a glittering awards ceremony at The Mecure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel for the finals of the Great North West Care Awards, where the category winners were announced.
The Great North West Care Awards, sponsored by Access Health & Social Care brought together the category finalists from across the North West region.
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 The Department of Health, The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), 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 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 specialist care in areas such as dementia and innovation.
The gala awards evening started in style with a drinks reception, followed by a superb gourmet dinner with some surprise entertainment throughout. This year’s awards theme wasGrease and were presented by entertainer Steve Walls with an abundance of entertainment from Encore Entertainment.
Paul Patarou, Head of Sales for Access Health & Social Care, said: “We have had the pleasure of being key sponsors of the Great British Care Awards for 2 years in a row. I believe that these events and awards are hugely valuable in highlighting the great work that the care sector delivers and goes a long way in rewarding individual excellence. I am both proud and excited to be able to participate in the coming years’ activities representing Access’ care sector software PeoplePlanner and CareBlox.”
Sean Turner, Director of The Great British Care Awards, said: “The Great British Care Awards are now in their seventh year and are continuing to go from strength to strength. We never cease to be amazed with the quality of nominations and this year is no exception. This evening was a true celebration for the unsung heroes of social care, without whom quality care provision in our communities would fail.”
Winners of the Great North West Care Awards will go through to the final at Birmingham’s ICC in Spring 2016.
The winners of the Great British North West Care Awards, together with the judge’s comments are detailed below:
Care Employer Award
Affinity Supporting People
Affinity Care are employers who obviously care a great deal about their employees. Staff are encourage to think outside the box when supporting people to ensure they can best meet individual needs in the most person centred way
Care Home Worker
Paul Bridge, Burton Shaw Care Home
A very difficult to judge category but Paul’s commitment to providing quality, individualised care was outstanding. His passion and enthusiasm is infectious. Well done Paul!
Home Care Worker
Karl Lamb, Care and Share Associates
Karl’s enthusiasm is infectious. He is one person who certainly goes the extra mile. Karl works in his own time to develop and conrage the young people he supports. It was a pleasure to hear about the work Karl has done!
Care Newcomer
Andy Grayson, Affinity Supporting People
Andy showed a burning commitment and passion for providing great person centred care. He clearly gives his all in working with service users and says his work is not work but it’s helping the people he supports to have the best possible quality of life. A very worthy winner
Care Home Manager
Karen Shepherd, Birtenshaw
Karen is passionate about providing personal centred care with an excellent demonstration of a person centred care approach. Judges were impressed by Karen’s technical knowledge and being an excellent role model to her staff.
Home Care Manager
Annette McDougall, Direct Health
Annette was nominated by her colleagues to fill a vacant role of Branch Manager following a poor CQC inspection. She took on the role and within 6 months she tuned the business around and had a successful inspection. Clearly this could only be achieved through supporting her colleagues and they her.
Dignity in Care
Janet Jackson, RMBI
Janet adopts a person centred approach to care in everything she does. She goes above and beyond to ensure the principles of dignity, independence, choice and respect are maximised.
Dementia Carer Award
Kathryn Penrith, Making Space
The Dementia Law Clinic provides much needed assistance to people with dementia and their families. This innovative service recognises the practical issues that need to be addressed and allows attention to return to looking after the person with dementia.
Care Team Award
Brookdale Care Home, Millenium Care
The Brookdale Team demonstrated unrivalled enthusiasm and passion for everything they do in their daily roles. Innovative, creative and hugely dedicated to the residents they support. They richly deserve this award.
Ancillary Worker Award
Theresa Prescott, Anchor
Theresa is more than an Administrator. Theresa is committed to ensuring the residents are happy, fulfilled and remain as independent as possible. Her hands on approach ensures that their wellbeing is always maximised. Well done Theresa!
Care Trainer
Mick McNeil, AAA Training and Recruitment Ltd
Mick’s passionate and professional approach towards training of care staff shines through and he demonstrated a consistent commitment to the benefits of excellent quality training for all staff, to support them in the delivery of top quality person centred care.
Care Innovator
Athena Healthcare Group
The Company’s passion and enthusiasm for providing meaningful activities is overwhelming. Their innovation to set up a forum for exchanging ideas, sharing resources and skills is to be highly commended. A very worthy winner!
Frontline Leaders
Leah Whelan, Affinity Supporting People
Leah is a dedicated carer who’s attitude is infectious. Leah continually strives to make a difference with a very positive attitude to care. Well done Leah!
Home Care Coordinator
Lesley Crowe, Kareplus
Lesley is a highly committed, hard working person, who was able to demonstrate a clear understanding of her role and organised approaches towards ensuring the provision of high quality person-centred care and support.
Putting People First Award
Stephen Halsey, Scope
Stephen has worked with Scope for 18 months. He brings a new and modern way of supporting people which encouraged them to live life to the full. Stephen’s motto is ‘it’s what people can do that matters’.
The Good Nurse Award
Emma Kay, Springhill Care
Passionate about delivery person centred care, Emma puts the residents at the heart of care provision. A dedicated individual and an asset to the sector!
Outstanding Contribution to Social Care Award
Kath Parkinson, Springhill Care
Kath Parkinson has been devoted to Springhill Care since 1986 and will celebrate 30 years of service next year.
Kath joined Springhill as a part time book keeper and progressed to the Manager of Springhill Care Home. Under Kath’s leadership, Springhill Care Home has won numerous accolades.
When diagnosed with Cancer, Kath continued to work as Manager during her treatment and successfully won her battle against cancer.
The team at Springhill all love and respect Kath dearly and were thrilled that even though she had retired from her role as Manager she continues to work as Director of Quality & Compliance for two days each week.
Kath is a massive part of Springhill Care and we all feel that she is most deserving of this award and to be a finalist would be a fabulous way to celebrate 30 years.