Night of Celebration at the South East Great British Care Awards as RCH Care Homes Wins Four Awards.

Oh, we do like to be by the sea, which was definitely correct for the RCH Care Homes teams who journeyed to Brighton on the 4th of November for the South East Great British Care Awards.

We are very proud and honoured to have had a total of 26 finalists from across the 8 RCH Care Homes in the South East region.

The glamourous gala event was held at the Hilton Hotel over two floors. The drinks reception was the perfect opportunity for the finalists to come together to share their nerves and excitement for the awards which were imminently about to start!

Our Essex Homes were represented by Customer Relations Manager Michael Kenny, Our Kent Homes were represented by the Maidstone Care Centre Care Team and also Emma Andrews, Customer Relations Manager as well as Abigail Draper, the Marketing and Lifestyle Project Manager at RCH Care Homes.

The evening was hosted by Steve Walls who presented the awards and also introduced live music from Shane Nolan’s Band.

 The first Award of the night was won by Abigail Draper, RCH’s Marketing and Lifestyle Project Manager. The judges said, “Abigail had a clear passion to place her residents at the heart of things. Her innovative ideas have kept the residents active, using technology, staying connected and embracing the positive side of things. It helps not only the residents but her innovative ideas have benefitted the staff also.”

The next award of the evening went to Lee Cunningham from Maidstone Care Centre who won the Care Assessor/Care Planner Award.

The judges said, “Lee clearly understands the importance of person-centred care planning and goes above and beyond to ensure that each resident’s care is carefully considered and reflective of their likes, preferences and desires.”

There was another win for Maidstone Care Centre when their Lifestyle Team won the Covid Hero’s Team Award. The judges said about the trio, “Tara, Sharon and Georgia demonstrated all of the qualities you would want to see. It was clear that their passion for their jobs came from the impact they had on the lives of the residents and it was heartening to hear of the efforts they went to at Christmas to ensure that it was still festive and happy. They also transferred that passion and caring spirit to their colleagues, bringing them treats, helping out with care tasks wherever they could and keeping morale high.”

The final award of the evening was a very special award for Park View Care Centre Resident, Roger Neve. Roger was announced as the winner of the Unpaid Carer Award for his role of Head Resident at the Nursing and Dementia home in Ashford. Emma Andrews, who nominated Roger said this about how incredibly special Roger is, “Roger likes to have a purpose in his daily life and with the input of his family, discussed daily tasks that Roger could undertake. As a very keen nature lover, particularly birds, a bird feeder was bought for Roger, before progressing onto assisting the gardener in his duties. Roger then asked for a daily task list so with his job description – (with the input from Roger) our very first Head Resident was appointed. Roger meets all new residents and their families to support their settling in period and provides reassurance. He has a super sense of humour and whilst in his company you will always see people smile.”

Not only did RCH Care Homes win four awards but a number of the finalists won Highly Commended in their category.

Maidstone Care Centre’s team also were Highly Commended in the Activity Organiser category with the judges saying, “What an extremely bubbly group of girls – what a fun place to be with these in charge of the activities. Sign me up!”

Our final Highly Commended award went to Brentwood Care Centre’s Head of Housekeeping Alan Moores in the Covid Hero Award. The judges said, “Alan’s efforts during the pandemic went far beyond what was expected of him in his job role prior to the pandemic. Alan also took steps to carry out training with staff and undertake training himself in how to perform LFT testing. Alan and his team’s work provided great reassurance to the wider staff team and Alan clearly had a calming and reassuring nature, that no doubt brought significant comfort to his team and colleagues throughout a very difficult and challenging time.”

RCH Care Homes are incredibly proud of the whole team who represented the group at the awards in a great celebration of the Social Care industry and those who work within it.

All winners now go on to the National Finals which will be announced on the 18 March 2021.