CATEGORY 1 – COMMUNICATION STAR
Hollie Kershaw
“Since Hollies clients’ care has increased to include evenings, Hollie has stepped up to do 4 nights a week with him. It can be difficult to plan activities for the evening when he’s been out all day, but Hollie looks into activities she thinks he will like, in her own time. She set up a gym session for him at a local gym and encourages him to take part in a walk on an evening, which helps him to work towards his outcome of doing physical activities. Her communication with the office is great and rings if she has any questions, or to check if the plan for the evening is ok. Hollie follows the boundaries in place for him, which helps him to build a structured routine. It shows the great relationship Hollie has built with him, as he’s always excited when he knows you’re working with him.” – Steph Denison – Communications Manager
“Hollie is good, awesome, brilliant, helpful and kind.” – Hollies client
“Hollie has an understanding of her client’s needs to a T, it is rare that he will have a behaviour when she is on shift. Hollie likes to take the lead when on shift as organisation keeps her client’s behaviours to a minimum.” – Josh Thomas – Support Worker
“Hollie’s client has had a difficult time recently, he can become anxious and present with some very challenging behaviours, those behaviours have seen him out of education for a long period of time. Hollie’s regular presence and firm understanding of why we have the strategies we have in place have helped her client to better understand these and allow them to be implemented to help him.
Our monitoring systems show a reduction in behaviours when Hollie is present, she is respected by her client and her approachable and understandable attitude helps her negotiate successfully for an all-round great evening.” – Martin Brook – Positive Behaviour Manager
“Thank you, Hollie, for helping Active provide this much needed emergency respite support for this family. Without it the client would not have been able to remain at home. Thank you also for caring enough about the client’s happiness to research and plan activities centred around their interests and outcomes. This is extremely professional and I bet has had a positive impact on managing behaviour’s too. Also, well done for your team work in keeping the office fully informed of developments, checking arrangements and clarifying your understanding of the support plan. Following the clients support plans in terms of routine and boundaries is so important when we’re trying to move a family/client out of crisis and keep everyone safe. Most importantly you should be proud of the excited reaction you get from your client when you arrive in shift. This says it all for me!!!!” – Karen Pogson – Registered Manager/Director
Hollie – “I am pleased with the comments which have been put forward in regards to my hard work with KS. The last few months whilst working alongside other staff members, we have definitely noted a positive change in KS behaviour and big improvement in his physical well-being. We always work well as a team to meet KS needs. This can certainly be a challenge but also incredibly rewarding at the same time. We will continue to work together to meet the needs of KS and hope to help with further improving KS behaviours and health.”
CATEGORY 2 – POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT STAR
Aime Standring
“Aimee raised a concern that her client and staff were using his phone to watch videos constantly when out and about, around the house and throughout all transitions. When her client became extremely anxious, he had nothing to help with this. Aimee suggested only putting videos on the phone when he was extremely anxious to help him calm and settle back down. All staff have started using the same method and this will in turn help with keeping it effective and fit for purpose.
Well done Aimee for noticing this and speaking up, your actions will ensure your client continues to receive a highly effective service in which he can live independently.” – Martin Brook – Positive Behaviour Manager
“Aime is great with her client, she takes the lead with medication checks and communicates well with the rest of the team, you can rely on Aime.” – Ashley Craven – House Manager
“Aime knows her clients routine and communication needs well, she provides person centred care for him and makes sure his environment is calm when living in a house with other clients. Aime plans everything in advance so nothing is forgotten.” – Dan Day – Positive Behaviour Team Coordinator
“Thank you, Aimee, for your courage to speak up and support your colleagues to provide more effective care and support for the client. We can all learn from each other and everybody at the end of the day wants to do a good job. It’s great when you can encourage others to work together to improve the behaviour management plan and reduce anxieties for the client.
I know this hasn’t been easy and a lot of effort and creative thinking has gone into finding ways to manage relationships and behaviours.
Thank you again Aimee for your part in this and for all your hard work and professionalism!!!!!” – Karen Pogson – Registered Manager/Director
Aime – “Thanks you for the compliment. I will continue to work for my client’s best interest and promoting his independence. It’s has been a team effort with all the staff involved with DT to maintain his happiness & quality of life.”
CATEGORY 3 – ROTA STAR (Day Services)
Sharon Calvert
“Sharon has shown true commitment to her role. She abandoned her car when she had a puncture last week and walked to her client to ensure he made it to school on time. She has also picked up extra shifts over the past month. She is a valued member of the team- well done!!” – Julie Bailey – Rota co-ordinator
“Sharon is always a very bubbly and helpful member of staff she always puts the clients first with everything she does.” – Simone Kelly – Newsome Day Centre Coordinator
“Oh my gosh Sharon, you ‘diehard’. Clients and families regularly comment on how reliable and dedicated our staff are in delivering service and how much this makes them feel valued and supported. Thank you also for helping Julie cover shifts to ensure that clients are fully supported and the service runs smoothly. This is very much appreciated!!!! Can I also take this opportunity to congratulate you on your forthcoming grandchildren. You are a caring, lovely family and I know those babies will be swamped with love. Enjoy every moment xx” – Karen Pogson – Registered Manager/Director
Sharon – “Aww thank you for this, it’s lovely to know I am doing my job well and I like to be very committed. I don’t like letting my clients/ staff down. I will do what I can to help with shifts and do extra where is needed. I love my job and the clients I work with. If the clients happy I am happy!”
CATEGORY 4 – ROTA STAR (Home/Community Services)
William Dymond
“William is truly a star! His commitment to each of his clients is superb. Whenever we are stuck, William will help out – rain or shine! We only wish more staff could be like William.” – Daisy Hall – Care Manager
“Will is a totally committed employee, he is creative and adaptable. All of Wills clients think he is great and would always choose him to work with them over anybody else!” – Zahra Ahmed – Care Senior
“William is good at diffusing situations as he is firm but fair.” – Ross Foden – Support Worker
“Ah William another ‘diehard’ member of staff who I believe has won this category award before. You know how much the rota team appreciate your help to cover shifts and I know all your clients and their families adore you!!! I do not know where you get your energy from. You are always so bright, bubbly and upbeat and this gives out a positive vibe to clients and team mates alike. You are a true professional William and we can’t thank you enough for your hard work and commitment to the clients and Active.” – Karen Pogson – Registered Manager/Director
William – “I would just like to thank you all it’s a pleasure working with the clients and staff that I work with and great support from the management team when needed thank you. I try to keep my clients happy by doing what they want to do during the visit whether it be having a chat or helping with something they need help with I also try to work hard and be reliable because I know someone could benefit from my time.”
CATEGORY 5 – OUTSTANDING SUPPORT WORKER (Home/Community Services)
Lily Gibson
“Lily Gibson has great imagination with her client, she does not fail to amaze me every single time of how she notices every nonverbal communication with her. She has supported her to be independent and is just inspirational. Her client now takes the spoon at meal times once loaded and feeds herself and this is directly down to Lily and her encouragement.”– Zahra Ahmed – Care Senior
“Lilly is really good with communicating with the clients. She has improved certain clients Makaton with sing and sign. Very punctual, organised and gives herself time to set up for all her activities for the 1:1 or groups she works with. She has a good imagination and offers new activities.” – Lauren Sutcliffe – Group Leader
“Lily gives me daughter so much attention and does so many things with her its brilliant, Thank you Lily.” – Clients Mother
“This is exceptionally person centred and caring work Lily. I always say that the most single important skill in providing great care is to really know your client, their preferences and ways. Your patience, attentiveness and creative thinking to find effective support strategies has produced tangible results in increasing your client’s independence skills. You should be really proud of this Lily and Zahra please make sure we capture this story for our CQC evidence file. This is what makes us ‘Outstanding’ Lily, very well done and thank you so much for your professionalism and dedication!!!!” – Karen Pogson – Registered Manager/Director
Lily – “Thank you so much! I try to provide care that is fun and with a happy atmosphere and I try to give them the best chance to be able to communicate their wants and needs, by putting them first, closely paying attention and just taking time to understand. Thanks again :).”
CATEGORY 6 – OUTSTANDING SUPPORT WORKER (day services)
Abi Johnson
“Abi is enthusiastic, motivated and has had some fantastic, unique ideas for Christmas craft activities which she has spent time teaching and supporting clients and staff to do.
She is flexible, thorough and full of fun, just what the clients want! .”– Sharon Weavill – Day Services Manager
“Abi is a great worker and a great asset to the team. She is always helpful and great with getting the clients involved and adapting the activities so everyone can participate.” – Simone Kelly – Centre Coordinator
Well done Abi. It’s great when staff use their personal talents to set up engaging activities for clients and support colleagues to develop their own skills at the same time. We really appreciate this level of enthusiasm as it brings energy to the service and promotes a positive and dynamic culture where clients have the opportunity to try new activities and learn new skills.
The feedback from clients and their families about the Day Centre services is particularly complimentary and at the moment and I want to encourage all the team to continue using their individual talents to create exciting and meaningful activities for the clients.
Thank you very much Abi for your commitment to the service and caring attitude towards everyone involved. It is so very much appreciated and you should be proud of this achievement. “.” – Karen Pogson – Registered Manager/Director emailed
Abi Johnson – “Thank you very much! To ensure I provide a good service to our clients I take time to learn each individual’s needs, this is important to enable me to adapt activities to suit the client’s abilities and outcomes, while constantly thinking of new fun and exciting ideas and activities for all the clients and staff to enjoy! I also ensure I greet each individual client each morning whether I am working with them that day or not. I enjoy my job and I enjoy the feeling of satisfaction when a client thrives off an activity, they have joined that day.”
CATEGORY 7 – OFFICE STAR (including trainers and group leader’s)
Sharon Weavill, Simone Kelly and Cath Bowers
“Thank you, guys, for your support in pulling together a support package for a client moving into our new support living house in Bradley, which should be opening at the end of December. These guys have also played a massive part in supporting the Bradley office to manage a number of other packages this month and I don’t know what we would have done without them. They currently face the challenges of setting up a range of packages for clients who can present challenging behaviours. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day but we somehow always manage to pull it out of the bag …. together. Great commitment and team work guys!” – Karen Pogson – Director/Registered Manager
“Karen’s right finding the hours is usually the challenge but as a team we can accomplish anything and dedicate the right people to the right job at the right time. This mentality of getting the job done is what makes Active great and why we have managed to help such a diverse and vast range of individuals time after time. Well done guys… another job well done!!” – Martin Brook – Positive Behaviour Manager
Sharon – “Thank you so much for the award! I take great pleasure being part of a great team and watching a team plan come together. Knowing that our aims will benefit more clients and their families is great !!”
Simone – “Thank you very much we always work hard in our team to provide the best care we can give, and am proud to be part of that team. I work hard on trying to communicate with everyone so everyone knows what is happening.”
Cath – “I talked to a lot of different people who know the client, especially family, and pulled out the key info that staff need to understand so they can support the client when he moves into his new home.”
CATEGORY 8 – OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO THE SERVICE
Maria Semertzidou, Sarah Wade Rathbone, Jourdan Edwards, Steph Denison and volunteer interviewer client
“Thanks Maria, for all your dedicated work in preparing our evidence for the Skills for Care Accolade awards. This is a national award and Active have been shortlisted in the top 3. Maria tirelessly collected evidence of everyone’s outstanding work and left no stone unturned. The winner won’t be revealed until February but we’re definitely in with a strong chance!!!! Thank you, Sarah, for all the work you did on the Managers Induction Course. You pulled it out of the bag as always. A huge thank you also to Jourdan who was interviewed by Skills for Care about his interview, training and experiences as a Support Worker. Jourdan answered the questions magnificently and this will certainly increase our chances of winning. It was heart-warming for me to hear how much Jourdan valued been part of a dynamic team and how much he appreciated the support he had received from all his colleagues, Dan, Jade, Martin and Steph. He talked about how he’d overcome his apprehension to undertake client personal care and how he views his work as an extension of family as opposed to a job. Steph was able to explain how working in dedicated teams to focus on specific skills sets had improved outcomes for clients. Our client volunteer interviewer also told Skills for Care how he takes part in some of the interviews to check how candidates make him feel and whether they come across to him as ‘caring’. Even if we don’t win, we can be proud that we gave it our best shot…….that said……watch this space :)” – Karen Pogson – Director/Registered Manager
“The team are amazing as individuals and on a whole, I see unmatched commitment and dedication to their roles on a daily basis. I had no doubts the jobs they were given would have been to the highest standard and I am honoured to have them as my colleagues. Well done team… now let’s go and win!!!” – Martin Brook – Positive Behaviour Manager
“We value Jourdan as part of the family. He is enthusiastic and eager to learn. He cares for his team and his clients genuinely, which is a great quality. Well done Jourdan welcome to the family.” – Jade Ditchfield – Positive Behaviour Senior
“Our volunteer interviewer client has helped us out by taking the old doors from Paddock Close to Newsome so they can be recycled I to furniture by the Woodwork group and looked after the office staff by washing up, drying up and tidying away into very tidy cupboards and drawers, we were put to shame!” – Cath Bowers – Support Planning Manager
Maria – “Thank you for my award. I really believe that we deserve to win the accolade award from Skills for Care as we do all work really hard to provide an outstanding service to our clients. I wanted to make sure that I could show them all the brilliant work that we do because I want everyone at Active to receive the recognition we deserve!”
Sarah – “Thank you for the voucher. I feel proud to be part of a team at Active who always places the best interests of our clients at the centre of everything that we do. I feel passionate about staff receiving the right training. We aim to ensure that the people who we support and provide care for at Active are looked after and cared for as if they were our own family.”
Jourdan – “The fantastic service is down to all the great channels at active. The great support and making it simple for staff to provide the best support for our clients possible.”
Steph – “Thank you for the award! I think it’s really important we recognise the different skills that are needed and focus on improving these specific skills, so that our staff are working to the highest standard with the client they support. By putting them into practice as a team, the client benefits from this high level of support and can continue to reach their outcomes. It’s also great for staff’s own personal development and achievements!”
Volunteer – “Thank you very much, I am glad I have won and I am happy to help more in the future.”
