The whole HC-One team is celebrating after winning a hat-trick of awards at the ‘jewel in the crown’ National Care Awards 2018, including winning the highly coveted Care Home Group of the Year Award.
The National Care Awards are the longest established annual awards for the health and social care sector. Now in its 20th year, the event is organised by leading care sector publication, Caring Times.
The awards celebrate the very best people and care providers in the long-term care sector, highlighting excellence and rewarding those who work tirelessly to consistently provide exceptional care.
HC-One’s win of the Care Group of the Year Award follows a spectacular twelve months for the organisation, with highlights including: an expansion to incorporate a further 122 care homes, meaning HC-One now supports more than 19,000 Residents with a team of 25,000 Colleagues; the launch of new dementia care strategy, Harmony; the appointment of former Care Quality Commission (CQC) Chief Executive, Sir David Behan, to the Board; achieving the highly acclaimed Investor in People Gold Status for a number of their homes as well as being recognised as a Centre of Excellence by Skills for Care; and the continual increase in the quality of care provided across the organisation with significant growth in the number of homes rated ‘Outstanding’, the highest CQC rating possible and an average rating of 9.5/10 on the sector’s leading care home comparison website carehome.co.uk.
The judges noted that HC-One has demonstrated several key factors that make them outstanding, writing:
“They have a wide focus, and despite their size, they value the individual… They celebrate the diversity of individual homes and sustain individuality at a local level. They are transformative and have turned the business around due to senior management working on the front line.”
Alongside the prestigious Care Home Group of the Year Award, HC-One’s Northview Lodge in Sunderland was honoured to be named Dignity and Respect Care Home of the Year. The award success follows Northview Lodge receiving an overall ‘Outstanding’ rating from the CQC in May this year, with inspectors noting Home Manager Patrick Morley and his team were, “very caring, kind and compassionate who wanted the very best for the people they supported”.
Like many HC-One homes, Northview Lodge has staff dignity champions, whilst the whole staff team has a clear emphasis on promoting people's dignity at all times. As well as instilling this ethos in the whole staff team, Northview Lodge also encourages the active participation of Residents in their own care. Two Residents have become dignity champions who attend staff meetings to represent the views of Residents and help foster a cycle of continual improvement, empowerment and participation that ensures the very best care outcomes are achieved for all.
To round off a fabulous night of success, Kellie Moore of Kesteven Grange was awarded the fiercely contested Care Home Manager of the Year Award. Kellie, who has worked at Kesteven Grange since she was 16 years old, has led the home for the past ten years. Having originally started as a carer, her ethos is to involve and value the contribution of all of her staff team, fostering a highly supportive and highly effective caring environment. Regularly praised by Residents, relatives, colleagues and visiting healthcare professionals, Kellie’s commitment to high quality, kind care has already been recognised this year when Kesteven Grange was named Care Home of the Year at the Hull Daily Mail’s Health and Care Awards 2018.
Justin Hutchens, Chief Executive of HC-One said:
“We are thrilled and honoured to have won the Care Home Group of the Year, which recognises the incredible work HC-One colleagues do each day to make a meaningful difference to the lives of Residents living in our family of homes across the UK.
“We recognise that our success as an organisation, and our ability to deliver high-quality, kind care is dependent on the people in our team. That’s why I’m so proud that Kellie at Kesteven Grange, and the whole Northview Lodge team were also honoured for their transformative approaches to delivering long-term care in their communities. I am so proud and privileged to work with such inspirational, caring and kind colleagues, and both Kesteven Grange and Northview Lodge are shining examples of the excellence in care delivery that HC-One aspires to each day.
“Our success at the National Care Awards underlines our continued comment to delivering on this mission to be the first-choice care provider in each of the communities we serve, and the employer of choice offering the best career opportunities for the kindest carers and nurses.”