Council carers clean up in national awards

The Excellence Network Awards are run by the magazine Community Care, which is the leading publication for and about carers.

The awards recognise initiative, team working and professionalism in key areas. The judges were looking for evidence of innovation, determination to succeed and engagement with partners to achieve the highest standards.

The awards went to:

• The Big Bruvver Project Team

Run jointly by the county council and Staffordshire Fire and rescue Service.  Building on the continued popularity of Channel 4's Big Brother show, the team have realised an inspired idea where a roaming diary room (a room in a Fire and Rescue Service Incident Support Unit) visits locations across Staffordshire to encourage young people to speak up on what it's like to live in their local community.

During a Big Bruvver Bus visit, local young people have a chance to give Council bosses honest feedback about life in their neighbourhood by giving a one minute low-down to camera.

• The Social Care and Health Central Performance Team

For work that ensures the quality of services delivered to vulnerable residents receiving social care is uniformly high across the county.

It is essential that all care professionals that deal with service users have access to and understand the same information. Even fairly small details, like everyone knowing how a service user prefers to be addressed, can be important to their welfare, while the needs of many people are extremely complex.

The team has developed training packages for care managers to ensure everyone uses the same standards.

• Amanda Terry, Social Care Quality Assurance Assessor

Amanda has spent five years in a consultation role conducting face to face interviews with people who use our services within a rolling programme of interviews across a number of establishments and in day service settings.

Amanda has spoken with hundreds of people across various client groups to establish their opinions on the quality of care and services received within residential establishments and in day service settings.

Robert Simpson, Deputy Leader of Staffordshire County Council : "I am delighted with the award for Big Bruvver. Children and Young People in Staffordshire must have their say about the services they receive. The Big Bruvver Project Team has worked extremely hard to develop a truly innovative way of consulting Staffordshire's teenagers and deserve to have their efforts recognised."

And Susan Woodward, Cabinet Member for Healthier Communities and Older People said: "The performance team have done some fantastic work in this area which demonstrates our commitment to improving services for both service users and carers, as well as helping our own staff in their professional development.  By promoting ownership and accountability on the front line, managers and staff can remain focused on quality assurance."

Ends

For more information go to:

http://www.theexcellencenetwork.co.uk/index.html