Wrexham care course nominated for top award

A PROJECT which has given Wrexham pupils an insight into a career in social care is in the running for a prestigious award. The programme was created by Pendine Park teaching care centre in Wrexham, which teamed up with nearby St Joseph’s High School to develop young people’s awareness of career pathways within social care.

The aim of the programme is to develop relationships between the young and older people, addressing the gap between the young and older generations and sharing each other’s values.

The centre’s innovative approach has been so well received by pupils at St Joseph’s, it has helped in the pupils GCSE in health and social care and has been recognised in St Joseph’s Estyn inspection report.

The GCSE course provides students with two qualifications.

To date 100 per cent of pupils have received grades between A and C.

Ten pupils have also gone on to study related qualifications in the sixth form.

Following a detailed application process and rigorous judging, the programme has now been selected as a finalist for one of the coveted 2009 Social Care Accolades, which are organised by the Care Council for Wales along with a number of partners.

The aim of the accolades – now being held for the third time – is to uncover, recognise and publicly reward teams, partnerships and organisations, which have helped transform social care services in their area by investing in the learning and development of people.

Tracey Evans, teaching care centre manager said: “We set out to encourage young people to share their experiences while giving them a realistic understanding of what it would be like working within the social care sector.

“The aim of our programme is to support teachers by providing the most important information delivered in the most interesting and practical of ways.”

Representatives from Pendine Park Teaching Care Centre and St Joseph’s will have to wait until June to find out if they have been successful when all will be revealed at the 2009 Social Care Accolades awards ceremony in Cardiff, which will be attended by the deputy minister for social services, Gwenda Thomas AM.