Social Care Accolade Winners Announced

At a glittering ceremony in Cardiff’s City Hall nine deserving winners received their Social Care Accolades from Deputy Health & Social Services Minister, Gwenda Thomas AM in front of an audience of 200 people representing the good practice in social care learning and development at work in Wales.

Seven categories were contested and the winners represented statutory, private and voluntary organisations as well as colleges from across Wales who demonstrated a real investment in the learning and development of staff to ensure better outcomes for people who use social care services.

A panel of 10 judges representing the whole of the social care sector were given the difficult task of short listing finalists before selecting the nine eventual winners.

The Accolades were inaugurated in 2005 to recognise and celebrate good practice within the social care sector. Run by seven partner organisations working in the social care sector, ‘Learning and Development in Social Care’ was chosen as the theme for 2007 for the key role it plays in improving practice and quality of services within the sector.

The Social Care Accolades also culminates in the celebration of the very first Social Care Week in Wales which draws attention to the excellent practice which is undertaken on a day to day basis.

Mutale Nyoni, Chair of the Care Council for Wales, said, “Congratulations to all those taking Accolades home with them today. Winning an award is no mean feat as the standard of entries this year was particularly high. This is great news for the sector itself and for those people who rely on the services of the social care professionals working within the sector.

“Even those organisations leaving without an Accolade today are not leaving empty handed. They should be proud of their achievements, and over the coming year we will be working with the finalists and winners to arrange workshops to ensure that all the good practice which has come to light as a result of the Accolades can be shared throughout Wales.

“I would like to thank those teams, groups and organisations that took the time and effort to enter the Accolades this year. The judges were highly impressed by all those shortlisted for the high standards of learning demonstrated and hope that many more are encouraged to submit entries again in 2009.”

This year’s winners are:

• Leading on Learning – Coleg Sir Gâr – Social Care Small Medium Enterprise Project
• Offering Opportunity, Changing Changes – Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council – Intermediate Labour Market
• Learning about Caring, Caring about Learning – Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council – Merthyr Tydfil Youth Supported Employment Programme
• Community Contribution – The KIM Project
• Joint winners of Being a Learning Organisation – NHC Cymru – Vale Short Breaks Project, North East Wales Institute – Outside in: Service User and Carer Participation at NEWI
• Investing in the Workforce – Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council – RCT Student Learning and Development Service
• Learning Together – Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council – Traineeship Scheme
• Special Recognition Award – Ceredigion Social Services, Ceredigion Investors in Carers GP Practice Award