Recognising Achievement and Giving Support to Care Homes

The next event in the South West Care Home Network (covering Somerset, Devon and Cornwall) is taking place online on Tuesday 14 September 2021 with a Safety Culture theme.

It will also focus on Safer Administration in Medicines with insight from Care Homes themselves as to how they are going about improvements to their Medicine Rounds through Communication, processes and their own ideas.

Care Home Managers and staff, leaders, CCGs, local authorities and other experts are invited, to build collaboration between Care Homes and others in the healthcare sector, and share good practice. Those involved in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall are warmly invited to join; please register by Eventbrite for the event taking place on Tuesday 14 September 13.00-15.00.

A regular part of the new quarterly network events is the Care Home Network Awards, to recognise all the achievements of the Care Homes across Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. Carers, Care Homes, teams or collaboratives are able to be nominated in different categories, around improving Safety Culture or Health and Wellbeing of staff and residents in Care.

Two categories are open for nomination prior to each network meeting, and at the first meeting which took place in May, the winners of the first two categories were presented with their awards from each County, and here are their stories.

Previous Winners of the Covid Heroes and Care Home Excellence Awards:

The next two award categories close on 31 August at 12 noon and include:

In recognition of a Care Home individual or team, that have created a Safety Culture through Managing Deterioration or Medicine Safety from 6 September 2020 – 5 September 2021

Examples might include:

Improving safety for all, reducing fear, managing risks, making a psychologically safe space for staff and families, developing a safety champion, providing peer-to-peer support, developing teamwork across the Care Home, protecting each other, effective infection control procedures, end of life compassion, leading by example, keeping spirits high, developing new activities for residents to stay happy and engaged in the care home.

In recognition of a Care Home, individual or team that have made an impact in managing and improving health and wellbeing from 6 September 2020- 5 September 2021

Examples may include:

Setting up health and well being sessions, going the extra mile to support each other, Making a significant difference to the health and wellbeing of the residents, families, staff and/or others throughout the Pandemic and beyond. Raising awareness of improving the health and wellbeing, providing mental health support, physical activity interventions or challenges.

The link to the Nomination Form is here and nominators are invited to submit up to 250 words, and a short video (or photos) to give a feel for the person, team or Care Home they are nominating.

This is your chance to nominate a Care Home, a Team, a Carer or a Collaboration for an award. Who do you know who is excelling in this area? Is there something extraordinary going on that you think others should know about? The closing date is 31 August, at noon.

These awards will take place throughout the year. These are the upcoming categories.

In recognition of a Care Home that has built capacity and capability from 22 November 2020 – 21 November 2021

In recognition of a Care Home, individual or team that have shown exceptional leadership through challenging from 22 November 2020-21 November 2021

In recognition of a Care Home, carer, manager or team, that have developed a significant improvement or innovation project or process from 21 February 2021- 20 February 2022