A leading home care organisation is celebrating a unique treble after winning a gold award for the way it looks after its staff and clients.
Wrexham-based Independent Living have been congratulated by local AM Lesley Griffith on the Investors in People Gold Award they have just received.
The company, which has a staff of 80 and is part of the Pendine Park social care organisation, helps over 200 people with learning and other disabilities, including dementia, to lead independent lives in the community.
Last year Pendine Park itself won the coveted golden accolade in relation to its residential care and its training company, Smartcare.
Ms Griffiths, who is also the Minister for Local Government and Government Business, said: “I’m very proud this double gold award has been achieved in Wrexham and I know from my time as Skills Minister how very hard they are to attain because I presented very few of them.
“It’s down to team work and hard work and you have a fantastic team here at Pendine Park and Independent Living.
“When you have a relative or loved one in residential or domiciliary care then you are entrusting them with your most treasured possession and you want the best services.
“The IIP Gold shows that you are the very best in your field and that the services you provide are of the highest standard.”
Jen Roberts, Operations Manager for Pendine Park, has been coordinating the implementation of the Gold Award standards and she said: “We are delighted to have achieved this recognition.
“When we first became involved with Investors In People it was a line in the sand and we gained the Bronze Award and now we have moved on and it’s brilliant to look back and see how far we’ve come.
Audra West, Manager of Independent Living, was also thrilled.
She said: “We have a good team here and some fantastic care practitioners out there in the community and we provide the service for them as well as for the clients because those practitioners are only as good as the information they get from us.”
Among those clients is 31-year-old Kelly Ashford, who lives in Bennions Road, Wrexham, where she shares a house and she said: “I used to live with my mother but now I share with a house mate and Independent Living have made it possible for me to do things more independently.
“I work two days a week in a charity shop and I go cycling regularly which is a very good form of exercise.
“The support I get is very good so I am very pleased to see Independent Living get this award.”
Mario Kreft, MBE, proprietor of Pendine Park, said: “When Warren Gatland recently won the Coach of the Year at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards he said great players make great coaches and that’s exactly what we have at Pendine Park, great people who make all this possible.”
