Plymouth Scoops Coveted National Dignity in Care award

Staff from Plymouth City Council's Adult Social Care Service and NHS Plymouth were presented with the Dignity in Care Award by former GMTV host Fiona Phillips at a prestigious ceremony at London's Guildhall.

The annual Great British Care Awards ceremony celebrates individuals and teams who have gone beyond the call of duty to provide care which ensures people are treated with respect and dignity at all times.

Plymouth's award was in recognition of its cutting edge work to ensure the highest possible standards in the city's 160 care homes.

Judges praised the Plymouth team for their "vision and imagination to help the care home sector in Plymouth really understand the meaning of dignity to improve the quality of experience for residents."

The award was for two specific areas of work - the Dignity in Care Home Forum and the Care Home Practitioners, both designed to provide practical support to care home managers and to share best practice.

The forum's achievements since it was set up in 2008 include:

• Commissioning an e-learning package for dementia awareness and provided dementia training for 230 carers

• Introducing measures to prevent medication errors in care homes

• Providing training to safeguard against people with mental health problems being unnecessarily deprived of their liberty

• Identifying 13 care home managers to be trained as 'dignity champions'

Care Home Practitioners visit city care homes to provide support and advice to ensure the highest standards of dignity and respect are maintained.

Plymouth City Council's Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care Councillor Grant Monahan said: "As a city we've made great strides in ensuring that people looked after in our health and social care system are treated with the utmost respect. This award is much deserved."

Councillor Joan Watkins, who has chaired the Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Panel, said: "Dignity in care is the hallmark of a civilised and caring community and this award represents a justly deserved pat on the back for all those who strive to make it a reality."

Debbie Butcher, Commissioning Manager, who has led the forums, said: "We would not have achieved this award without the support of the independent sector care homes who are committed to working in partnership with the Council to achieve dignity in care and improve standards across the sector. We will now continue to work closely with them to build on this achievement."

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