Castle Care Villages up for Lion's Share

Sarah Moody and Kerry Hilton from Castle Care Villages are both in the running for the Lion Awards after collecting their City & Guilds Medal for Excellence.

For over 100 years, City & Guilds Medals for Excellence programme has recognised success among learners and tutors. This culminates in the Lion Awards – City & Guilds most prestigious awards ceremony – which acknowledges the best of the best. This year’s Lion Awards will be celebrated at a glamorous red-carpet ceremony on Wednesday 5 June 2013 at the Roundhouse in London.

This is the first time Barchester has attempted programmes for people that live at their homes. Sarah is a resident at Castle and has learning disabilities.  It was agreed that Sarah had a lot to offer and was involved with the running of the home. Sarah has met and surpassed the standards required at Entry Level 2 Award and has become a dedicated convert to further development of herself and others that she lives with. Through this qualification, Sarah has become a valued member of the hospitality team and now moving on to the Entry Level 3 Certificate. Sarah has now taken on pioneering work with the activities organiser to enable her to have a more varied working role.

This pilot was introduced through Kerry who works at the Castle Care Village and has worked within the learning disabilities environment for more than 15 years. Through Kerry's fabulous enthusiasm and understanding about what service-users need, other homes all over the country are now interested in getting involved to help services-users reach their potential. This is a great opportunity for the people living in Barchester services to contribute to developing alternative and innovative care pathways.

Kate Mansfield -Loynes, Head of Learning and Development Academy, said: "The work that is undertaken throughout the Castle Care Village is truly inspirational. Staff work with service-users in a relationship-centred manner at all times achieving the greatest of results. Kerry, as the assessor, wholeheartedly embraced the concept of the employability and personal development programmes and has worked extremely hard to ensure that they are a success. Through this, Kerry has infected all members of staff with excitement and there is a real buzz around both the learners and the programme. Sarah has been a pleasure to work with. She has shown excitement and real commitment to progressing through the award and she will be starting her next programme in June.

Cyd Akrill, Senior General Manager of Castle Care Village, said: "I am really proud of Sarah and Kerry.  It demonstrates how innovation can assist the care pathways we are working towards between our services to ensure each individual recognises that it is possible to have goals and achieve them."