Author: Kristyna Hunt

Team members from luxury residential and dementia care home provider, Ideal Carehomes, are celebrating after being recognised for their hard work and dedication at the groups’ prestigious annual Ideal Care Awards ceremony.

The Ideal Care Awards seek to celebrate the care teams’ commitment to making their homes such wonderfully welcoming and caring places for their residents and staff to live and work.

After a callout for nominations from colleagues, residents, relatives and professionals, the group received over 1000 entries across 14 categories, including Masterchef of the Year, Support Star of the Year, Maintenance Machine of the Year and Home of the Year.

A special category, named the Resident Outstanding Contribution Award, was created with residents in mind, giving credit to those residents who are the life and soul of their homes, joining in wherever possible and making all their fellow residents feel welcome.

A panel of judges selected around five finalists in each category, who were then invited to a glitzy ‘dress to impress’ awards gala, held at Casa Hotel in Chesterfield. They were joined by special guest and comedy legend, Bobby Davro, who provided entertainment throughout the night.

Head of Development and Engagement for Ideal Carehomes, Sarah Colling, said, ‘We hosted the first Ideal Care Awards in 2019 and the response was phenomenal and surpassed even our expectations -We just knew we had to make it an annual event!

‘This year’s awards focused on honouring our teams who have worked so hard to provide the highest standards of person-centred care. Our awards ceremony really is our chance to show our appreciation for that.’

Guests arrived to a champagne reception and later enjoyed a delicious three-course meal. As each award winner was announced, they were invited on to the stage to receive their trophy, which was live streamed on Facebook for their colleagues, families, and friends to see at home.

73-year-old Rosemary Turner from De Brook Lodge care home in Flixton and winner of the Resident Outstanding Contribution of the Year Award, said,

‘When they said my name, I thought ‘oh my God’. I feel very proud and honoured to have won the award. I will continue to carry on doing what I have been doing.  I find De Brook Lodge very homely, and I am really happy, especially now I’ve been recognised in such a lovely way.’

Anna Owsicka, winner of the ‘Home Manager of the Year Award, from Lydgate Lodge care home in Batley, said, ‘I still can’t believe I won!’ She continued,

‘It’s lovely to be recognised for the work you do. I’ve put my whole self into Lydgate Lodge and winning has motivated me to continue doing what I’m doing. This award really tells me how much my work is appreciated.’

Managing Director, Stacey Linn, said ‘We are so proud of each and every member of our Ideal Carehomes family. We are a people business, and nothing is more important to us than our people who all work so hard to give our residents the best quality of life.

It was extremely difficult to narrow down our finalists, but our winners stood out and they deserve the highest praise. Congratulations to all our 2022 winners and finalists!’

Nominations have now opened for the third Ideal Care Awards!

The first awards were held in 2019 where there were over 700 nominations and in 2021 we had over 1000 nominations.  

All finalists are invited to attend a sparkling gala awards dinner (travel, meals and overnight stay costs are covered by Ideal Carehomes) where the winners are announced. 

Nominating is quick and easy, and you can nominate as many team members as you like.

What are you waiting for?  Click NOMINATE NOW in the top right hand corner and make sure your colleagues are recognised for the amazing job they do!

Team members from Ideal Carehomes are celebrating after being recognised for their hard work and dedication at the groups’ prestigious annual award ceremony.

The Ideal Care Awards seeks to celebrate the care teams commitment and dedication to making their homes such wonderfully welcoming and caring places for their residents to live. After a callout for nominations, the group received a record breaking 1200 entries, across 14 categories ranging from Pandemic Hero, Beyond the Call of Duty, Home Manager and Care Home of the Year.

A judging day determined the finalists for each category, and a special ‘Wonka’ chocolate bar was then sent in the post, with each bar containing their golden ticket admission to the awards ceremony.

The glitzy ‘dress to impress’ glitzy awards gala, held at Casa Hotel in Chesterfield, after being cancelled several times throughout the year, where the finalist were joined by special guest and host, Shaun Williamson, best known for his role as Barry Evans in EastEnders.

Shaun entertained the finalists with stand-up comedy and impressive singing, which had everybody up on their feet, before announcing each category winner, he said, ‘It was a true honour to have been asked to join the Ideal Carehomes’ teams at the Ideal Care Awards. The stories of each finalist were incredibly moving, and it made each award I handed over all the more touching. Congratulations to all of the winners, you are all such a deserving bunch of people!’.

A special category was created with residents in mind, giving credit to those residents who are the life and soul of their homes, joining in wherever possible with whatever is going on in their home.

On the evening, each resident finalist celebrated with a party, using Facetime to join the rest of the finalists during their category. Resident Outstanding contribution winner, Frank Cavander fromBowbridge Court, said, ‘It is a real honour to even be nominated, but to win is very special. I always like to be involved with activities and I like to make myself useful and pitch in where I can to help the staff too – They are my family and Bowbridge Court is my home, I wouldn’t have it any other way!’.

Head of Development and Engagement for Ideal Carehomes, Sarah Colling, said, ‘We hosted the first Ideal Care Awards in 2019 and the response was phenomenal and surpassed even our expectations -We just knew we had to make it an annual event! This years awards focused on honouring our teams who have worked so hard on the frontline of the pandemic to continue to provide the highest standards of care. Over the past 18 months we have really seen remarkable acts of care, support and even bravery from our staff and our awards ceremony really is our chance to show our appreciation for that!’.

Managing Director, Stacey Linn, ‘Our motto for the awards is ‘not all heroes wear capes’ and that is certainly true of the Ideal Carehomes family. We had the really difficult job to narrow down our finalists, as each nomination was filled with such heart-warming stories from our homes. However, I think our finalists really stood out and were extremely deserving of the highest praise.

We are incredibly proud of all our homes and their amazing teams who work so hard to give our residents the best quality of life, and the Ideal Care Awards is just one way we ensure that they get the recognition that they deserve. Congratulations to all of our 2021 winners!’.