Staff at the Springhill Care Group in Lancashire have won two top national care awards.
Catherine Shawarby, General Manager at Birch Green Care Home in Skelmersdale, walked away with the Care Manager award at the 14th annual National Care Awards held recently.
Stephen Penketh, Registered Manager and Vici Beardsworth, Operations Manager at the Springhill Group’s Accrington-based supported living service, Affinity Supporting People, were jointly named winners of the Special Needs Manager award.
Birch Green provides high quality nursing and residential care for 74 older people and is part of the Lancashire-based Springhill Care Group.
Affinity is a not-for-profit company providing care services for young people with learning disabilities. Stephen described how he felt about receiving the award: ‘It is very humbling to receive this award. It makes the hard and sometimes difficult work we do extremely rewarding and extra special. We appreciate that behind every good manager is an exceptional team which makes our position much easier, bringing the award back to the north west shows that this area is one of the best in the country.’
The trio were picked as winners from among the top care organisations and businesses in the country.
The National Care Awards, now in its 14th year, is one of the social care sector’s premier award ceremonies, run by trade magazine Caring Times. This year’s event took place at the Hilton London Metropole Hotel, featuring TV and radio host Roy Walker and 600 guests.
Ken Nolan, chairman of Springhill Care Group, said: “This was a great result for the team and a wonderful testimony to the quality of our managers.
“Affinity and Birch Green were picked above much larger care providers, and we are particularly proud to be bringing these awards back to the North West.
“Everyone at Birch Green, Affinity and across the Springhill Care Group have worked incredibly hard over the last 12 months as we have made significant investment into many of our services, and this success shows that we are leading the way in the quality of our care.”
