Cornwall Care has secured three prestigious awards at the Excellence in Business Training Awards 2009, including the overall winner of winners’ award – the Business Excellence in Training Award, thanks to its continued investment in staff.
Cornwall’s largest independent care provider for older people picked up the ‘Individual Achievement’ award for Education and Practice Development Business Manager, Bridget Cooney and the ‘Outstanding Commitment to Training’ award was also won by Cornwall Care.
The judging panel, which included members of the Confederation of British Industries (CBI), congratulated Cornwall Care on its approach to training and noted that the awards were made not only for the efforts that went into training but it was also a reflection of the impact the training had on client care.
The company was one of the first organisations in the country to design and implement an accredited award-winning dementia care course and spends more than £750,000 on staff training every year. Cornwall Care has an in-house Education and Practice Development team which provide a range of mandatory and bespoke training to reflect the needs of the services.
The annual ceremony, this year hosted by Cornwall College Business, was held at the Headland Hotel in Newquay at the end of last month. The awards recognise companies’ outstanding achievements through their commitment to training.
Douglas Webb, chief executive of Cornwall Care said: “Everyone at Cornwall Care is hugely proud of this achievement. It is a real endorsement of the whole team’s much valued work and as such the awards represent a big boost to the whole Cornwall Care team. We have a long term commitment to training and proactive approach to creating highly valued services in areas of real need. We provide opportunities for all our staff to reach their full potential, giving them the training necessary to deliver our services to the highest standard.”
Dave Linnell OBE, principal of Cornwall College added: “I would like to offer our congratulations to the whole team at Cornwall Care on winning these three awards. It is clear that Cornwall Care is passionate about training all its staff across the business and investing not only money, but a significant amount of time in training, which has contributed to the success of the business.”
Since the company was formed in 1996, it has established a track record of training that spans all of the skill areas and takes people from apprenticeship to degree level. Over the years Cornwall Care has provided training for more than 3400 people.
Cornwall Care far exceeds the requirements for training set out by the regulatory bodies and continues to forge ahead with new and innovative programmes; for example, working with Cornwall College to establish the Foundation Degree in Care for Older People.
As well as formal courses of study, Cornwall Care promotes the involvement of clients and relatives in telling their unique stories and building an understanding across the generations.
Even in the current economic climate training is at the heart of Cornwall Care’s business ethos and Douglas Webb doesn’t see that changing anytime soon, he said: “Training is so important for us as a business and our dedication and commitment to delivering over and above what is expected has been recognised. By winning three awards for training we really are showing our passion for great customer service and investment in our staff.
“It bothers me that training budgets are always one of the first to be cut during an economic downturn when it’s actually one of the most important things that a business should invest in. We will continue to offer a wide and diverse range of training options to our staff for the foreseeable future, after all we’ve got three titles to defend.”
