News
Bury Adult Services Launch Social Care Awards
06 April 2010
Bury Adult Care Services will be holding an Adult Social Care Awards ceremony. The event is the first of its kind for social care in the borough and is designed to celebrate the hard work and achievements of people who work in adult social care in Bury. This includes workers across the council, private, voluntary and independent care providers, volunteers and unpaid carers. The event will pay tribute to those individuals who have demonstrated excellence in their work.
Nominations have now closed and over 80 nominations have been received across the 10 award categories. The categories are:
- Young Care Practitioner of the Year
- Employee of the Year
- Manager of the Year
- Team of the Year
- Equality and Diversity Award
- Innovation Award
- Dignity Award
- Social Care Worker of the Year Award
- Beyond the Call of Duty Award
- Lifetime Dedication Award
These award categories were chosen in order to recognise some of the key priorities for social care for the future, thereby reinforcing the qualities and values that the workforce needs to possess.
Kat Sowden, Head of Workforce in Adult Care Services explained how the event came about and the impact it is already having:
“The Department of Health Workforce Strategy ‘Working to Put People First’ was released in 2009 and outlined the importance of raising public awareness of social care roles and recognising their value to the community. We thought what better way to do that than by having an Awards ceremony to recognise and celebrate excellence in adult social care. The event is cross sector so we have worked together with our partners to ensure that everyone in the sector whether they be a carer, a volunteer, a personal assistant or an employee have a chance of winning an award. We’ve involved our customers in judging nominations so it truly is the people’s awards. What has been fantastic about this whole project has been the energy it has generated. The team who are co-ordinating live and breathe the awards – it’s like our own version of the Oscars! There’s also a massive energy and excitement in services as people find out who has been nominated and wait for the big event to find out who will win on the night. It has been such a positive experience for everyone and has boosted staff morale across the board. Our local Unison branch has been supportive and even come on board as a sponsor. These are really challenging times for social care and it’s good to be able to do something that people have really engaged with and can feel positive about.”
Many of the nominations received came directly from customers of social care services who wanted to acknowledge the support they receive. The positive customer engagement extended to taking part in the judging process and this was found to be a valuable experience for those involved.
The other judges were the event sponsors for the award category. These are:
- Elderworld
- Healthcall
- Opus Pharmacy Solutions
- Bury College Business Solutions
- The Village Hotel, Bury
- 7even Solutions
- Unison
- Skills for Care
- Bury Council
- Specialist Training and Development Limited
Other event sponsors include:
- Ainsworth and Parkinson
- Complete Technology Solutions (CTS)
- Slattery
Judging was undertaken against specially designed judging criteria based on the 7 Outcomes as specified by the Care Quality Commission.
Feedback on the judging process was extremely positive:
“We thought that the standards were very high and all of them deserved an award.” (Shelagh Whall, Director, Opus Pharmacy Services – Sponsors of the Lifetime Dedication Award)
“It has been a pleasure to read the details of each person/team nominated, it goes to show what fantastic things can be achieved when people believe in giving something back. As a result of being involved in the judging process, I am proud to say that I have enrolled to be a Dignity Champion.” (Anthony Muckells, Branch Manager, Healthcall Optical & Hearing Services – Sponsors of the Dignity Award)
The event takes place on 20 April 2010 at the Village Hotel, Bury and promises to be a real evening of celebration. Specially invited guests include Sue Macmillian, Regional Director from CQC who will open the event. Linda Nazarko OBE nurse consultant & research fellow at King’s college London will attend as guest speaker. Invitations for event have been provided to finalists and their guests as well as those who made their nominations and it is expected that around 200 people will take part in the event. Photography and video coverage will be made on the night and will be available via local websites including Burytv.net and the adult social care jobs website for Bury which is another new cross sector venture due to be launched in April 2010.
Editors’ Notes