Celebrating Social Care: celebrating care staff
29 Apr 2026
3 min read
As we dedicate April to #CelebratingSocialCare, we’ve been gathering good news stories from across the sector. Read our latest update.
Simply Care Group celebrates staff with award ceremony
Simply Care Group hosts an annual award ceremony to celebrate the hard work of their staff.
The awards foster a culture of appreciation, and ensure that their team's work is visible, respected, and rewarding.
The awards are open to all job roles across the home, and act as a benchmark for excellent care, leadership, and compassion - encouraging peers to mirror these actions.
Simply Care Group says:
When our staff feel supported and recognised, they are more engaged, leading to better decision-making, higher staff morale, and improved care outcomes for service users. We believe awards, such as these, provide a well done that makes our staff feel valued, strengthening their commitment to the organisation. We know a motivated staff team is more productive and more likely to go the extra mile.
Social care apprenticeship supports care leaver to find a stable career
Nick, an apprentice at social eneterprise PossAbilities has shared how life-changing his apprenticeship has been.
As a young leaver, who has experienced homelessness and struggled with addiction, Nick’s apprenticeship has helped him find some stability for the next chapter of his life.
Looking for a role that he enjoyed, that supported his mental health, allowed him to work in a practical way and to make a difference to others – in the way that others had supported him in his life - Nick found himself applying for the apprenticeship which saw him placed at PossAbilities. The social enterprise provides support for vulnerable adults with learning disabilities, dementia and young people leaving care.
Nick says:
The apprenticeship has taken me out of a chaotic place and given me a future. I’m really enjoying how I can work with different people, with different needs and I want to experience more across the whole sector. I don’t know what I want to specialise in yet, but I’m excited to find out. If you’re reading this and thinking about starting an apprenticeship in care, I’d say 100% do it and put yourself out there. Endless opportunities can come out of it.
National Care Group celebrates the career journey of their staff
As part of #CelebratingSocialCare, National Care Group have shared the inspirational career journey of two of their members of staff.
When Dan retired from the Metropolitan Police after a 30-year career, he wasn’t ready to hang up his hat from the world of work. The skills he’s developed in policing enabled a seamless transition to a support worker role at National Care Group’s Jamesons Care, in Colchester, Essex. It’s a career move he doesn’t regret. Richard, Registered Manager at Jamesons Care said:
Dan is highly regarded at Jamesons and has proved to be a great addition to the team. Not only does he make a difference to the people we support, but he is also respected amongst his peers for his positive approach and his enthusiasm to enhance people’s lives and achieve positive outcomes for them.
As part of his role as a 1:1 activity support worker, Dan coordinates social activities for the people he supports, tailoring them to their needs and interests while enhancing their quality of life.
Dan says:
Working in the police has developed my ability to communicate with anyone. I have quickly learnt that each person at Jamesons communicates their needs in very different ways. I adapt my communication style to meet the needs of the people we support, ensuring person-centred support is at the heart of everything we do.
When Addy started a career at National Care Group’s Springvale Resource Centre in Middleton, Greater Manchester, as a bank support worker, he had no prior social care experience.
In less than two years, his confidence flourished, and he felt empowered to take on more responsibilities, resulting in a promotion to a senior role and a national award.
National Care Group’s annual Outstanding Achievement Awards recognise colleagues who go above and beyond their roles to make amazing things happen for supported people or their fellow team members. Addy was crowned ‘Support Worker of the Year 2025’.
Wendy, registered manager at Springvale Resource Centre, has praised Addy’s contributions to championing independence for the people he supports, his commitment to personal and professional development, and his willingness to go above and beyond to support his colleagues and the people supported at Springvale.
She said:
Addy entered the field with fresh eyes, a compassionate heart, and a remarkable drive to make a difference. He joined as a bank support worker and, from the get-go, was eager to get involved with the complex care needs and routines of the people we support, build impactful relationships, and ultimately empower them to achieve their full potential. His quick progression to a senior support worker role reflects his dedication, ability, and natural leadership qualities. He’s a crucial part of our team at Springvale.
What 40 years working in care means to me
Lisa Orme shares her experience of a 40-year career in social care:
For forty years, I have lived a life woven into the fabric of the care sector - a career where compassion is not an abstract value but a daily practice. When I first stepped into this field after leaving school in 1986, I was young, eager, and unaware of just how profoundly this work would shape me. What I found was a career that demanded strength, resilience, humour, and a heart that could stay strong even on the hardest days, with the COVID-19 pandemic being one of my hardest experiences ever.
Across four decades, working in nursing, charity, and private provider care establishments, I’ve supported people primarily with complex needs through moments of vulnerability, confusion, and deep co-productive connection.
It’s been an emotional career path. Every person I’ve had the privilege to care for or manage has left an imprint, teaching me something about resilience, dignity, or the quiet power of simply being present.
The sector has changed enormously - new regulations, new expectations, new pressures, but the essence of care has never shifted. It remains rooted in humanity. In seeing the person, not the task. In offering comfort when words fall short. In showing up, again and again, because someone needs you.
Looking back, I’m proud of the support I have offered and the person this career has helped me become. Care work is often described as demanding, and it is. But it is also meaningful beyond measure. It has given me purpose and perspective, it was never an ambition… t has been pure passion.
Forty years on, I still believe in the heart of this profession and hope school leavers consider a career in care. I’m truly grateful for every life that has touched mine along the way.
Find out more about #CelebratingSocialCare.
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