The Care Employer Award (Independent)
Harvinder and Sukkbir Singh, Calcot Services for Children
Harvinder and Sukkbir were excellent examples of caring, professional employers who demonstrated exceptional knowledge and compassion towards the young people and staff in their organisation.
Highly Commended
The Care Employer Award (Independent)
Hexagon, Hexagon Care Services
Hexagon Care Services clearly devotes time and energy into the staff teams across the organisation. Everyone is invested in the success of the outcomes for the young people.
The Employer Award (NFP)
Gordon Quince, ID Residential Ltd
For over 18 years, Gordon has worked within Residential Children’s Care with an emphasis a therapeutic approach to the services he provides. Developing his staff team to deliver excellent outcomes to the children in their care. Taking professional advice from psychotherapists has meant that his services for young people are extremely important. Understanding the children’s needs as well as creating opportunity for staff members to develop.
Highly Commended
The Employer Award (NFP)
Nathan Whitley, Buckinghamshire Children’s Services
Nathan has been successful in improving services for young children within the local authority sector. His passion is about the final outcome for the young person and what they need to do to get to this point.
The Newcomer Award
Emily Powell, Sea Sanctuary
Emily is very passionate about the service she works in and about how the service benefits the young people. Her assured personality and confidence in her own self-development was a by-product of this, but it was refreshing to see the main focus for Emily was improving the lives of the young people in her care.
Highly Commended
The Newcomer Award
Angela Hunt and Alison Kindred Byrne, To the Moon and Back
A real test of character when you put everything on the line to follow your dream of improving the foster care service. There is no doubt that Alison and Angela will leave a legacy that will change the outcomes for young people and attitudes towards looked after services.
The Support Worker Award
Molly Mcillroy, Sea Sanctuary
Molly demonstrated that she was passionate about her role, child-focused, and clearly wanted the best for the young people in her care. Molly was able to explain how she uses her training and qualifications to help not only those on her care, but also her colleagues. Her colleagues have recognised her as being a hard-working member of the team. Well done Molly!
Highly Commended
The Support Worker Award
Matthew Green, Care 4 Children
Matthew was very passionate about his work with young people. He is driven to ensure that young people’s voices are heard and their ideas used to bring about positive change and has been heavily involved in a new project called ‘Voices 4 Children’. Matthew provided an example of a successful and inspirational story. Well done Matthew!
The Frontline Leader Award
Matthew Brown, Pebbles Care
The judges were particularly impressed with Matthew’s unrivalled commitment, dedication, and passion to looking after the children and young people entrusted in his care. This is evidenced through the career progression made in his 4.5 years employed at Pebbles Care, transitioning from a residential care worker to Registered Manager in a relatively short space of time. Matthew has been engaging and instrumental in contributing to culture change within the home and working towards implementing a therapeutic model for children and young people to really benefit from this approach.
The Registered Manager Award
Peter Grimes, Brinscall Care
Peter has a real passion for his work as a Registered Manager and his infectious enthusiasm and dedication to empower staff and support young people shines through. From the recruitment process, induction and ongoing staff development Peter places his staff team and young people at the heart of the home. His commitment to developing his service and improving the positive impact on the outcomes for young people was recognised and commended by the judges. In a highly competed category Peter’s award is well deserved.
Highly Commended
The Registered Managers Award
Nia Jones, New Horizons (NW) Ltd
Nia is an inspirational Registered Manager who empowers the staff team with her passion for reflective practice to drive forward outcomes for the young people at Douglas House. Her commitment and drive to develop the staff team and improve outcomes for young people were demonstrated throughout her interview. In this highly contested category Nia’s achievements are recognised in her being highly commended by the judges.
The Registered Manager Care & Education
Jake Shelton, Kedleston Group
Jake is a Registered Manager for six homes and his commitment to continuous improvement has seen him lead on the introduction of risk assessments led by young people, improved relationships with uniformed services and the introduction of large group international holidays to build memories for young people and staff. He has realised his ambition to facilitate change from a position of leadership and actively shares his good practice with other services to support improvement for young people broadly and not just in his care.
Highly Commended
The Registered Manager Care & Education
Emma Hemmings, Oracle Care & Education
Emma is an experienced Registered Manager in a care and education provider who is passionate about supporting staff to be the best they possibly can, in whichever service they work and to give young people a voice and the skills to be independent. She has changed the language used in her homes from institutional to child led and family orientated.
The Children’s Home Team Award
Villa Farm Staff, Outcomes First
The Villa Farm Staff Team demonstrated that they have a consistent team who work well together in a family-orientated home. They were passionate about the service they provide and gave some good examples of how the team work together to provide a fun environment for the children,
Highly Commended
Hardwick House Team (Robyn, Toni, Lisa, Marie, Natasha), Keswick Care
The Hardwick House Team very much came across as more of a family than a team of staff. They were all very passionate and demonstrated a strong work ethic. They gave very good examples of how they work together as a team. The operations manager was very proud of the work the team had put in and the positive outcomes achieved.
The Children’s Home with Education Team Award
Fountain House Team, Five Rivers Child Care LTD
They came across as a cohesive and resilient team. They got involved in community activities such as the street play project. They clearly listen to the views of the young people and include them in everything they do, including recruitment. They were collaborative in their approach, there was no visible hierarchy and their respect for each other was evident. The welfare of the young people is at the heart of all their working practice.
The Foster Carer Award
Paul & Kelly Lacey, Hope Fostering Services
We feel that Paul and Kelly have demonstrated overall commitment and loyalty to their children, Kelly was very honest about how fostering can be challenging as well as looking after your own children., They have had conversations on real life situations which have affected their children, violence, and domestic situations and this has helped change how they see and perceive relationships. Their home is the hub of the family, they spend time making this nice and a home for their children, and this is very much a priority for them.
They have had holidays with their children, and this has given them lovely experiences, memories, Kelly spoke of trips to the seaside and how the children love this.
One young person is now in the appropriate education provision due to Kelly and Paul taking on the challenge for this, meeting his autism needs and ensuring he attends the right school, and he has said “he doesn’t feel different” and has friends and plays football.
The Fostering and Adoption Award
Kim Curless, Wigan Council
Kim has ensured that consistency and stability is offered to young people and their experiences in the foster system through implementation of the Mockingbird model in their local authority. This has enable some fantastic stories of success that have meant young people have wholesome and secure networks around them through each stage of their journey and even enabled some to return home.
Highly Commended
Neil Morris, The North East Foster Care Associate Team – FCA
Neil and his team are dedicated and passionate about getting things right for children and young people. Their approach to stepping back and identifying gaps in their practice to ensure a seamless and holistic approach is commendable. They ensure that the voice of the child is truly at the heart of what they do and shapes all future work to be done with them.
with other relevant bodies to increase awareness and understanding of the importance of promoting wellbeing.
The Biggest Impact Award
Matthew Green, Care 4 Children
Matthew’s passion and commitment to ensuring wellbeing, safety and engagement was inspiring. He adopts a proactive approach to person centred care and promoting the very best possible outcomes for children.
Highly Commended
Nikki Wilson, Speak Up Service, City of York Council
Nikki and her team clearly demonstrate the impact that they have on children and young people through their advocacy support – but furthers this through their multi-faceted approach to getting their service users involved as advocates and role models themselves. The relationship building is key to their success and each person involved are keen to offer opportunities and support to children and young people.
The Wellbeing Award
Rebecca Gooch and Chloe Lovell, Central Bedfordshire Council
Chloe and Rebecca are very passionate about what they do. They demonstrated a very good understanding of wellbeing and provided very detailed and inspirational examples of how they have supported not only children and young people, but also their families. They have been involved in developing a number of initiatives and have thrived despite the setback of Covid-19. Chloe and Rebecca discussed their work
The Safeguarding of Children Award
Marlene Peter, Support and Safeguarding Team South – Wiltshire Council
Marlene represented her team very well and provided a lot of insightful detail about the operation they worked on. Marlene was very knowledgeable and experienced and supported her team to achieve very positive outcomes. We were very impressed by the family-orientated and consistent approach taken by the team, as well as an ‘open-door’ of support for the victims of abuse and their families.
Highly Commended
The Safeguarding of Children Award
Jack Binks, Arronbeth Ltd
Jack was very confident and represented the company very well. He demonstrated an excellent understanding of safeguarding and gave positive examples of how children at the home have been safeguarded. Jack was evidently very passionate about what he does, and he is invested in the service provided. Jack demonstrated how staff at the homework very well as a team and work collaboratively with the relevant authorities to ensure children are sufficiently safeguarded.
The Children with Disabilities Award
Jen Weeks, LVS Hassocks
The whole school ethos shone through Jen’s explanation of what and how they approach education within their service. Community spirited and a genuine need to help and support.
However big or small the improvement, it was seen as a major achievement and recognition of staff and pupils
The Leaving Care Award
Carol Stewart, Central Bedfordshire Council
Carol demonstrated her and her team’s passion for the work that they do with care leavers. They are driven to ensuring that care leavers needs and aspirations are met and place an emphasis on listening to their wishes and feelings. They recognise the need to bridge the gap between care leavers and non-care leavers, and always look to provide equal opportunities for their own care leavers. Carol provided some examples of successful and inspirational stories. Well done Carol and team!
Highly Commended
Michael Doolin, Inspire Scotland
Michael puts the young people they are supporting at the heart of everything. Michael promotes a culture of enablement for young people and goes above and beyond to ensure young people thrive to be the very best they can be. His passion and commitment was infectious!
Highly Commended
Leah Edwards, Wigan Council
Leah recognised the need to continue with care and support post 18, focussing on a holistic approach with her team. She was also able to explain how they have worked with care leavers to improve the overall experience for others, and from there has built relationships with partners in the community to again ensure that care leavers have the support that they need. She demonstrated her passion for the work that her teams do, with clear strategies in place to help care leavers. Well done to Leah and her team!
The Partnership Working Award
Adolescent Intervention & Prevention Team, Southend on Sea, Southend on Sea Borough Council
Carol and Alex were interviewed for the partnership working award. The judges were impressed with the work undertaken by the team and the impact that the partnership working has had on transforming the lives of children and young people. We were particularly impressed with the work of the team and their approach to educating the wider community, for example taxi drivers, in recognising the signs and being vigilant around criminal and sexual exploitation. This has had profound and positive outcomes in preventing exploitative behaviour towards children and young people. They were clearly a values driven duo and were passionate about the work they undertake in their communities. Well done.
Highly Commended
Dudley Virtual Alliance, Dudley MBC
Clearly have the best interests of the young people at the centre of what they do, clear drive to support and sustain independent living
The Children’s Champion Award
Abdul Siddiqi, Derby City Council
Genuine commitment to changing young lives as Youth Mayor through volunteer work alongside his own studies. Stepped outside his own comfort zone to lead and influence others. Lead and welcomed nationwide change via the police force. Despite the roll being time bound, his work has continued through further volunteering to promote and empower young people. An inspiration to young adults.
Highly Commended
The Children’s Champion Award
Kate Farrar, Wiltshire Council
Valuable work is a very challenging setting, undoubtedly life changing. Always with a full case load making differences to young lives. Challenges authority is a supportive manner to progress life chances, very passionate and demonstrated massive impact from client feedback- reassuring new and future cases. Breaking down barriers to help young lives.
The Children and Families Social Worker Award
Emma Cox, Central Bedfordshire Council
Emma was able to show very strong localised support for children requiring long term fostering placement. Using her extensive background in education, charity work and residential care to make the difference. Emma was humble and proud to be nominated and much deserved from the evidence we heard.
Highly Commended
The Children and Families Social Worker Award
Rebecca Knight, Bedfordshire Council
Rebecca demonstrated work that showed the extra mile to create “sparkle moments” for the children in her care
The Outstanding Contribution to Social Care
Rachel Redgwell, Calcot Services
Extremely passionate and dedicated in changing the perceptions of looked after children and advocates regionally and nationally for positive changes to policy and legislation to support the rights and needs of children and young people. An inspiration to her team as has dedicated her time to supporting staff to become passionate professionals striving to achieve the best for the young people. Has supported the young people to create a THIS IS ME video that is used by the NHS as part of their training resources
Highly Commended
The Outstanding Contribution to Social Care
Louisa Iqbal, Care4Children
Created a fostering social group that offers support to fostering households to include birth children and secondary carers that come together often and has created a family feel community. Louisa does not feel this is a career, she feels it is a lifestyle that has led to her wanting to create a homelife for children she gives her own
