Saturday 12th November saw over 300 of the very best in social care attended a glittering awards ceremony at The Marriott City Centre Hotel, Bristol, for the finals of the Great South West Care Awards, where the category winners were announced.
The Great South West Care Awards, sponsored by Wells Pharmacy brought together the category finalists from across the South 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 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.
Winners of the Great South West Care Awards will go through to the final at Birmingham’s ICC in Spring 2017.
The winners of the Great British South West Care Awards, together with the judge’s comments are detailed below:
Care Employer Award
Oldway Heights
Being nominated by his staff and the families of residents demonstrates passion for caring for individuals often bypassed by other agencies. Having done this for over 30 makes Oldway Heights a very worthy winner.
The Care Home Worker Award
Shaun Hills – Homes Caring for Autism
A committed, passionate and forward carer who will go far in this sector. Shaun’s outstanding commitment to his clients has transformed their lives beyond recognition.
The Home Care Worker Award
Milla Owen – Premier Home Care
Her life experience, looking after a friend made her get in contact with her caring side and ever since she is doing her best to offer support and to value every person’s life.
The Care Newcomer Award
Anna- Marie Ray – Somerset Care
Her life experience made her choose this field. She wanted to bring her skills and her knowledge to support people with learning disabilities.
The Care Home Registered Manager Award
Julie Edwards – David Smallacombe
Having started in this home as a Carer and worked her way up to being the Manager a position she has held for a number of years, this speaks volumes about her passion for care. A worthy winner!
The Home Care Registered Manager Award
Lorraine Maher – Bluebird Care Bournemouth & Poole
Lorraine has worked in social care for 20 years. She enthuses a passion and commitment to delivering excellent person centred and end of life care and is the first domiciliary care provider in Dorset to have been awarded the Gold Standard Framework. Well done Lorraine!
The Care Home Cook/Chef Award
Sally Reynolds – Order of St John Care Trust
Sally is passionate about ensuring the wellbeing of residents is maximised through a person centred approach to nutrition and hydration.
The Dignity in Care Award
Meg Austin – Colten Care
Meg is a kind hearted person that puts a lot of passion in her work. Every day she finds ways to put people’s dignity first, to encourage them to do as much as they can for themselves and to make sure
The Dementia Carer Award
Jade-Marie Wilding – Care and Support South West
Jade-Marie is passionate about this subject and is intent on making the wider community more knowledgeable of the condition making her a deserving winner of this award.
The Care Team Award
Nazareth Lodge
The Care Team have demonstrated excellent care in an outstanding home that continues to look at ways to provide ‘The best’ Nazareth Lodge encapsulates great ideas and fun within this home!
The Care Home Activities Co-Ordinator Award
Vanessa Duggan
Vanessa’s enthusiasm for her work in making the residents’ lives more enjoyable and fulfilled, together with her willingness to innovate, makes her a worthy winner of this award.
The Ancillary Worker Award
Rachel Curron – Order of St Johns Trust
Rachel has clearly demonstrated how she has overcome disability and shyness to become a valued and trusted member of the team. Rachel has worked passionately to achieve this!
The Care Trainer Award
Laura Jeffries – Cream Care
Her passion for care and her experience made her to become a trainer. She puts a lot of effort in passing the information and making sure that the job is being done properly.
The Care Innovator Award
Caron Sprake – Caron Cares
The availability of cards to be carried by dementia sufferers has world wide application The fact that Caron has developed this at her own expense in eleven different languages and made it free to suers makes her a worthy winner.
The Frontline Leaders Award
Trudy Palmer – Springhill Care
Her strong values in care and her knowledge made her become the team leader. She uses her skills to enable others to do deliver the best quality of care.
The Home Care Co-ordinator
Luke Bond – Cornwall Care
Ambitious, focused and passionate about improving the care of service users and valuing his team. A worthy winner!
The Putting People First Award
Susan Anne Matthews – Flexicare Home Services
With the client best interest at heart Susanne is offering support for people at their end of life. Her kind heart and her knowledge in care, enables her to provide the best quality of care to individual and to their families.
The Palliative Carer
Lynda Finnamore/Natasha Baker – Nazareth Lodge
The culture of Nazareth lodge is one that ensures an excellent, person centred approach to palliative care for both the resident and their families.
The Good Nurse Award
Elizabeth Mary Rose – Castle Hill House
She dedicated her life looking after people. Recently she decided to join the social care sector to offer her skills and her enthusiasm looking after the elderly.
The Outstanding Contribution to Social Care Award
Camilla Trimble – Nazareth Lodge
Camilla Trimble has been involved in residential care for over 30 years having previously managed a group of homes in the London area prior to acquiring Nazareth Lodge.
Camilla demonstrates an unwavering belief that if you recruit well and nurture through education and supervision, and show a genuine interest in your staff, you will be repaid with loyalty. She also offers opportunities to those with learning disabilities and apprenticeships. Following an award of ‘Outstanding’ from the CQC Camilla has been instrumental in founding the ‘Outstanding Society’ with the support of Care England and the CQC.
Her vision is for members to mentor and help those Homes that have had a rating of ‘Requires Improvement’ or ‘Inadequate’. Her colleagues have nominated Camilla for this Award due to the amazing support she gives to her staff and service users.
Lets celebrate social care and help it get the recognition it deserves