Zest Awards Special 2022

... to our 2022 VEA special!

I’m so pleased to bring you our annual awards special, dedicated to celebrating the amazing people who make Voyage Care so exceptional. It’s always a joy to host the awards and see first-hand the excitement and pride our finalists feel – and this edition is your window into the celebrations! I hope you all joined us virtually but fear not, there are videos to watch on Hive if you missed it!

Thank you to everyone who nominated colleagues; we’ve had yet another recordbreaking year for nominations. Each one told the story of a committed and passionate member of our team! The judges had a tough time selecting both regional and national winners, and all our finalists should be very proud as competition was fierce!

Read on to find out more about our wonderful winners. This issue’s packed with photos and interviews, sparkling with Voyage Care gems. There’s even more to enjoy in our Readalong edition on Hive, too!

A final congratulations to all our winners and finalists.

I hope you all enjoy reading about the 2022 VEAs. Nominations for next year will open in June, so get thinking about who you want to see on the stage in 2023!

Jayne Davey Chief Operating Officer

fromFive Hive

Hive is a hub of activity! It’s full of helpful information – take a look today!

news room

Moving on up!

Parkbrook

Lodge and Victoria Sanford from St Helen’s Down have both been on an incredible journey – and have awards to show for it! In 2020, Kayleigh and Victoria won regional and national VEA awards in the Care Home Support Worker of the Year category.

They have spent the past two years working incredibly hard and have both achieved managerial positions, putting the people we support at the forefront of everything they do. Their hard work has not gone unnoticed, as this year they both took home regional awards in the Care Home Manager of the Year category!

Congratulations!

Got some news? Send your story to communications@voyagecare.com for your chance to feature in the next issue!

been up to

Kayleigh’s collection is growing

I wanted more for the people we support –I wanted to give them the world. I wanted everything to come as easy for them as it does for us and the only way I could do that was to progress up the ladder.”

Kayleigh Jubb, Service Manager

Kayleigh

herreceiving

national invite in 2020

Victoria Sanford with her 2020 award

Erin celebrating her 21st birthday

The key to success

Introducing our youngest ever Registered Manager… Erin Kiernan from The Lawns!

Starting her career in care at 18 years old, Erin has spent the last three years completing a range of qualifications. This year, she joined the Voyage Care family and continued to develop her skills. Now, at the young age of 21, she has accepted her dream job of Service Manager!

“The best thing I have found about working for Voyage Care is the level of support. There is always somebody to turn to if you’re stuck or talk to if you need it,” said Erin.

You can read more about Erin’s journey on Hive!

Eco round-up CaptainPLANET’S

I love seeing eco-friendly ideas from our services. Looking after the environment is fun!

Keeping score on your recycling!

Ricky, Team Leader at Millstream House loves to plan activities for the people we support. From 90s-themed parties to superhero sports days, Ricky is always finding activities for everyone to take part in. Here is one of his latest projects… creating a giant game of Scrabble from leftover cardboard boxes. What a way to recycle!

“By creating these activities, you are showing how much you are invested in the happiness of the people we support and that you are giving them the best quality of life that you can provide,” said Ricky.

Ricky won a very special award at this year’s VEAs, go to page 23 to find out more!

We’re so excited to share that Dudley Street have achieved their NAS accreditation! The team have worked incredibly hard to reach this point and have involved the people we support every step of the way.

The NAS assessors saw evidence of the impact during their visit and despite a long journey with ups and downs, they’ve now officially achieved Advanced Status!

Ready to play Makaton

Here’s Sarah from BROCS saying ‘well done’ in Makaton to this year’s VEA winners!

CHALLENGE has returned!

Be inspired by some of the Activ8 challenges completed so far!

As we enter winter, there’s a whole host of new Activ8 activities to get stuck into.

October, as usual, was a busy month for our services! People we support have been busy carving pumpkins, baking pumpkin cakes, creating spooky houses and hosting their own Halloween masquerade balls!

Check out some of the fantastic Activ8 activities our services have completed so far.

There’s still time to get involved with lots of fun activities planned for November and December! Why not make a veg pledge for Veg Pledge month, or celebrate the first-ever winter World Cup?

Get in touch

If Christmas is your thing, turn your home into Santa’s Grotto ready for the big day. There are plenty of ways for you to get involved!

Remember, if you complete eight different challenges, you’ll receive a wonderful prize! How many challenges can you complete?

October activities

1

Remember to send photos and videos of you completing the Activ8 challenges to communications@voyagecare.com

Joseph from Rivers carving his pumpkin

Merlin Close have completed all the

Merlin Close

Starting the with a boom(f)! VoyageExcellence Awards

Back in August, colleagues and teams across the country received a very exciting delivery! A Boomf cube (a 3D invitation) popped out of each envelope, announcing them as this year’s regional finalists!

Here are Charley Mackrell from Cloverdale and Sarah Gower from Northfield House opening their Boomf invitations!

Our amazing finalists were invited to join their Managing Director for a celebratory lunch in their region as the winners were revealed. The hard work and dedication our regional finalists show every day is so inspiring and the judges had to make some very difficult decisions!

Awards special

Carol Turner, regional finalist for Community Support Worker of the Year was elated to receive her Boomf in the post – take a look at her reaction on Hive!

Charley Mackrell

Sarah Gower

All cheers for the South East region

To see who went on to win on the night, go to page 13

Stevie and her team celebrating their win

Millstream House

182 Ashby Road, regional winners of Care Home Team of the Year for Central East, celebrated with a party and even a VEA-themed cake!

I am so immensely proud of my teams!”

Stevie Baines, Operations Manager

I am happy that my work was noticed and excited to continue supporting individuals I am working with.”

Marta Gospodinov, Regional Community Senior Team Member of the Year finalist

The full list of regional winners and photos from their events are available on Hive!

Marta Gospodinov

Stevie

Awards special

Come and... present with us!

“We prep for the VLM months in advance, thinking about key themes that align with our strategy,” reveals Andrew.

“In the morning, we recap our notes, run through the presentation on the screen, and at 9:45am it’s time to begin the VLM conference.”

Getting mic’d up

Kicking off with the VLM

The VLM creates an opportunity for senior leaders to receive key company updates and collaborate on developing our strategy to deliver great care and support.

“At the end of the VLM, it’s time to prep for the VEAs. Jayne goes off to hair and make-up, whilst I put on my tuxedo!”

The Zest team went behind the scenes with Andrew and Jayne as they went from the VLM (Voyage Leadership Meeting) to the VEAs stage...

Running through notes

“It’s time for our favourite part of the evening” says Andrew. “The stories that we hear are simply incredible!”

“It’s such a privilege to present that moment when we say ‘and the winner is…’ That’s special!” adds Jayne.

Get in touch

In our next ‘Come and...’ story we would love to share more about how you celebrate your culture in day-to-day life. Email communications@voyagecare.com if you would like to share your story’

Ready to present

“Now it’s time to rehearse, and our celebrity host Andrea McLean arrives to practice with us!”, adds Jayne. “This is where I get really nervous, but as it says in our ‘Top Tips’, I just need to believe in myself and go for it!”

The VEAs

in numbers

With a recordbreaking number of nominations, the 2022 VEAs was set to be the best yet and it certainly didn’t disappoint!

Preparing for such a large event takes a lot of time. Our dedicated Internal Communications team work hard to make the event a success; setting up the nominations platform, designing and sending the invitations, shouting about the celebrations on Hive and our social channels, and ensuring our finalists have a night to remember! Here are some of the highlights…

1,200+ nominations submitted 75 regional winners

The VEAs are the highlight of our year in so many ways! It’s such a privilege to create an event that puts our amazing colleagues in the spotlight; hearing their stories and learning more about the impact our care and support has is incredibly powerful. It’s a night we look forward to every year!”

300+ people joined us virtually Our amazing finalists!

Alli Cary, Head of Internal Communications

Alli Cary

Community Team of the Year Oaklea

Group Support Team of the Year Behavioural Support Team

Care Home Team of the Year The Legard

Community Senior Team Member of the Year Sophie Parsons, Somerset & Devon DCA

ETHOS

Newcomer

Specialist Team of the Year

of the Year Charlotte Hill, Titchfield Lodge

Group Support Team Member of the Year Helen McAndrew, HR

Award Cat Talbot, Internal Communications, Ricky Johnston, Millstream House & Steve Walters, BROCS

Operations Manager of the Year Kate Farroll

Apprentice of the Year Kirsty Scaife, VSH

Field Based Team Member of the Year Jonie Jackson, Area Recruiter

Behind the scenes

The Internal Communications team work hard each year to provide a night of celebration for our incredible colleagues, and 2022 was no different!

Here are just some of the things the team get up to before our guests arrived, to bring the VEAs to life…

Capturing footage of the set-up, ready to show in next year’s videos!

Checking over all the printed materials like signage, drinks tokens, place cards and table plans!

Time for the run through! Making sure our presenters have everything they need to deliver the amazing news to our winners in the room, and to those watching from home!

Meet the team behind the magic!

Cat, Alli, Lauren, Deanna and Amber

A moment on the red carpet

Anthea Russell was presented with the most prestigious award of the night at this year’s Voyage Excellence Awards, the Sade Abayomi Award!

The Sade Abayomi Award recognises those who truly put the people we support and the Voyage Care family at the heart of everything they do.

We caught up with Anthea on the night to find out how she feels about winning!

Congratulations Anthea! How does it feel to win one of the most special awards of the evening?

“I can’t tell you how it feels, it’s absolutely outstanding, I’m so delighted and surprised!”

What do you love most about your role?

“I love to see the smile on people’s faces. When they come to me and ask ‘will I be able to do this or that?’, the answer is always yes! Watching them achieve their personal goals puts a smile on my face!”

What’s your favourite thing about Woodlands?

“Being a Woodlander! I absolutely love the team and the people we support at the service. Once a Woodlander, always a Woodlander!”

Anthea returning to Woodlands from the VEAs to a full celebration of her achievement!

Could you describe the VEAs for us?

“Outstanding, wonderful! Very well organised and very secretive – how you did it, I’ll never know!”

Anthea telling the Zest team all about her win!

My experience of Anthea as a manager is that she will embed the company’s ETHOS values, mission statement, and everything else into you. She will help you perform to the best of your ability and get the most out of you and develop you, and your goals as well, whilst achieving the goals of the people we support.”

Vicki Bennett, Operations Director

short story

The Sade Abayomi Award is our most celebrated award of the evening and highlights the dedication of its worthy winner.

Congratulations to Anthea Russell for being this year’s winner!

Vicki kept Anthea’s win a secret!

Andrea

selfies

What has it meant to you, to present at this year’s VEAs?

“It has been fabulous hosting this year’s awards! Just meeting everyone, sitting and having dinner with everyone, taking lots of selfies! It’s been so wonderful hearing all the incredible stories and feeling the warmth and love in the room – I’ve loved it.” Have you got a message for our frontline teams? *blows a kiss* “I want to say a huge well done to you all. You’re all wonderful and your hard work is inspiring. Keep doing what you’re doing!” Tell us a fun fact about yourself! “I once jumped out of a helicopter, head-first, into a lake… on purpose!”

Second time’s a charm

Children’s Complex Care were finalists for Branch of the Year at the Voyage Excellence Awards for the second year in a row. To their delight this year, they won the award! After the ceremony, they shared what winning meant to them…

How does it feel to win this year?

“It feels absolutely amazing, we are over the moon! We’ve worked so hard, and we work together as a team collaboratively.”

What’s been your highlight of the year?

“Winning this award – this is for the whole team! Also the team’s many achievements over the last couple of years because getting children and young people back into schools and into the community is really important but the pandemic made that really hard.”

How will you celebrate with the rest of your team?

“Many of them watched the ceremony live so they will be delighted, but will be having a big team celebration sometime soon!”

Valaine

Annie

Yvonne

Cheers all round!

Sharing spotlight! the

The judges had a tough time picking one winner – how does it feel to be recognised together for your hard work?

Gemma: “It feels amazing, and to share this award with Sarajane is extra special!”

Sarajane: “It feels incredible to win alongside Gemma and to be recognised for just doing my job!”

What do you love the most about your role?

Sarajane: “The people we support and enabling them to live the most amazing and fulfilling lives.”

Gemma: “The fact I can make a difference to the people we support and to my team.”

Read more from our winners on Hive!

Sarajane Willis from Northfield House, and Gemma Ghorbani from New Fern, made VEA history this year as they were both crowned Care Home Manager of the Year

How do you keep yourselves and your teams motivated?

Sarajane: “We’re a close family team and treat each other with respect. I’m always there if they need me and they’re always there for me!”

Gemma: “I try to spread positivity which has really helped us through the difficult times!”

Gemma and Sarajane

Three’s a crowd pleaser!

This year we had three ETHOS Award winners. They were chosen for their outstanding commitment to the people we support. In their own unique ways, they all create experiences that embody our values.

We caught up with Ricky and Cat on the night and Steve, who was watching the show virtually...

It was absolutely amazing to win and so surprising. I love planning activities and seeing the outcome of those on the people we support’s faces.”

I couldn’t believe it! I feel honoured to have been amongst so many incredible winners.”

Cat Talbot

ETHOS values are a big part of what makes Voyage Care so special!

It was a lovely surprise and I feel proud to have won the award. I relate to all of our ETHOS values, every day I try to achieve something when I am supporting the people we support.”

Cat Ricky

Ricky Johnston

Steve Walters

Steve, taking a break from the music room to collect his award

award goes to... Our 2022 outstanding achievement Kelly Barnard

Kelly Barnard, Service Manager of Derwent Cottage, is this year’s Outstanding Achievement Award winner!

Achieving an Outstanding rating from the CQC is challenging; and so is maintaining. And yet, Kelly has led her team to an exceptional third Outstanding inspection report, maintaining their Outstanding rating for more than eight years!

We caught up with Kelly to find out what it meant to win…

Congratulations, Kelly! The award tonight was a complete surprise, what did it feel like when you heard your name?

“I was lost for words and in complete shock! I had been looking round the room thinking, ‘who is it?’ - it just feels amazing.”

What did it mean to you to win?

“It was a humbling experience. It just goes to show that how hard you work is noted by others. It’s a fantastic feeling.”

How are you going to celebrate with your team when you get back to Derwent Cottage?

“I have got to let it all sink in first, then we can get planning!”

Can you describe the VEAs in one word?

“There aren’t any words, I am still lost for words! It’s just You can...

Listen to Kelly’s interview in ‘Zest readalong’, our more accessible way to digest Zest magazine!

Get r 2023eady fo

It’s never too early to start thinking ahead to next year’s VEAs! The nominations will be open before we know it on 1 June 2023. This year, we saw some of the best nominations in VEA history. The more information and supporting materials you can include in a nomination, the better chance your nominee has of making the finals. Over the next few months, start gathering up great stories and feedback for the colleagues and teams you feel go above and beyond in their day-to-day role.

We can’t wait to read all your

Show and tell!

Our Care Home Team of the Year 2022 finalists, Mandalay, have been busy in the kitchen putting their own twist on a recipe from the Voyage Care cookbook! They added blackberries into Kelly’s apple crumble, here’s how:

Ingredients:

3 large Bramley apples

2 crisp eating apples, such as cox

250g blackberries

2-3tsp cornflour

100-150g caster sugar

ingredients:

240g plain flour

150g butter

120g demerara sugar

Enjoyed this recipe? Have a go at Kelly’s apple crumble in the Voyage Care cookbook!

Method: 1. Heat the oven to 170 degrees (fan) 2. For the crumble topping, sift the flour into a mixing bowl, add the butter and rub the mixture together with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs 3. Rub together until the mixture begins to stick, then stir in the demerara sugar 4. Peel, quarter and core the Bramley and eating apples. Then thinly slice the Bramley apple into a large mixing bowl 5. Cut the eating apples into slightly thicker wedges. Add to the Bramley apples with the blackberries and mix 6. Mix the cornflour with the caster sugar, add to the bowl of fruit, and mix. Set aside for a few minutes then toss everything together once more until the cornflour mixture clings to the outside of the fruit 7. Spoon the mixture into the baking dish, then pack it down into an even layer with the back of a spoon 8. Spoon the crumble mixture over the top of the fruit. Bake for 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown

Remove the crumble from the oven and leave to rest for 5-10 minutes. Enjoy!

Charlotte getting ready to bake

The winning art

The Voyage Care

We are delighted to announce that we have recently welcomed 16 services from The Disabilities Trust to the Voyage Care family! The services are a blend of registered care homes and supported living properties. Together, they have capacity to support over 65 people across the North, Reading and the South East.

The services transferring to Voyage Care support people with a range of learning disabilities, autism and complex care needs. We have worked very closely in partnership with the Trust to ensure a smooth transition for the people we support and our new colleagues. Our local teams will continue to support them as they settle in!

And the winner is…

Donna