Carers Trust Network Partner, Helensburgh and Lomond Carers SCIO, awarded the Excellence for Carers Award.
Carers Trust is delighted to announce that its Argyll and Bute Network Partner, Helensburgh and Lomond Carers SCIO, has been awarded the Excellence for Carers Award.
The award follows a rigorous assessment of Helensburgh and Lomond Carers SCIO services to unpaid carers, as well as the quality of its leadership, staff, internal processes and engagement with key local partners and stakeholders.
By achieving the Carers Trust standard, it recognises that Helensburgh and Lomond Carers SCIO demonstrates:
- The appropriate levels of organisational capacity, infrastructure, resources, and culture to continue making a lasting difference to carers into the future
- Are increasingly engaged in shaping, contributing, and influencing outcomes and priorities at the local and national levels to make carers count.
- Have increased scope and improved ways to engage carers at different levels of their strategic and operational activity in line with principles and ideas of the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016.
- Deliver high quality, effective, efficient, and safe services that improve outcomes for carers, while also being able to address emerging identified unmet need.
- Have effective, varied, and sustainable methods of demonstrating and communicating impact on carers and the wider community to a range of relevant stakeholders.
In making the award, Carers Trust said in its report that: “Helensburgh and Lomond Carers SCIO demonstrate a commitment and passion to their mission to make a lasting difference to unpaid carers living in Helensburgh and Lomond area of Argyll and Bute. They have a number of strengths as they are valued and highly regarded by all stakeholders and viewed as an important provider of information, guidance and support for Carers as well as a key strategic partner. They have a dedicated and skilled team of staff and trustees who strive to make a difference to the lives of Carers and have the passion, competence and determination for the benefit of Carers. The organisation and its people have a clear sense of purpose, mission and direction; and well-integrated and engaged into the local and national landscape; shaping, contributing, and influencing outcomes and priorities for unpaid carers”.
Carers Trust also noted in its report the commitment of Helensburgh and Lomond Carers SCIO, having achieved the award, to carry on making improvements, citing: “Aware of its strengths and sustainability challenges. Acknowledgement and openness of areas for improvement and proof of efforts being made to achieve the organisational capacity, infrastructure, resources, and culture to continue making a lasting difference to carers into the future”.
As well as signalling the quality of its services for unpaid carers, the Helensburgh and Lomond Carers SCIO award means its partners, and stakeholders commissioning services from the charity, can be confident they are partnering with an organisation that has best practice and sustainability hard-wired into its organisational DNA.
Welcoming the award, the Manager of Helensburgh and Lomond Carers SCIO, Sharon Richardson, said: “We are delighted to receive this award from the Carers Trust in recognition of our unwavering commitment to making a positive difference to the lives of unpaid carers in Helensburgh & Lomond. I lead a dedicated, resourceful, and innovative staff team, supported by volunteers, who pursue our aims and aspirations with enthusiasm, compassion and a deep understanding of the needs of unpaid carers in our community and the personal outcomes they are seeking. We cannot help carers achieve all of these outcomes on our own and are fortunate to have developed constructive and effective partnerships with other organisations operating in our area who share our desire to improve the health and wellbeing of the communities we serve. We also have a governing body of far-sighted trustees who set the foundations and are constantly looking ahead to what challenges and opportunities the future might bring to ensure our sustainability and improve the range and quality of our services.”
Scott Lafferty, Network Development Manager (Scotland) at Carers Trust, continued: “It was abundantly clear and evident that everyone across Helensburgh and Lomond Carers SCIO team, from staff, management and trustees; as well as from carers and external partners, that they are a Network Partner carer centre dedicated and committed to achieving a culture of excellence for unpaid carers living in the Helensburgh and Lomond area of Argyll and Bute. They have managed to achieve this in amongst rising to the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic and as they remobilise and set their COVID-19 recovery in motion for the many unpaid carers they work with and for. I am delighted that they have achieved Excellence for Carers and I very much look forward to seeing Helensburgh and Lomond Carers SCIO continuing to shine in their determination to continue to have the capacity to making a lasting difference for unpaid carers”.
About Excellence for Carers
Excellence for Carers is the Carers Trust organisational standard for best practice in delivering services, information and advice to unpaid carers. It is awarded to partner charities (Network Partners) within the Carers Trust Network able to demonstrate both an existing excellence of service to unpaid carers and a culture that fosters continuous improvement and striving for excellence. Carers Trust developed the award so charities within its Network are continually evaluating and improving the quality of services, thereby improving the quality of life for unpaid carers across the UK.
Editors Notes:
For further information, and to arrange interviews, please contact:
Matt Whitticase: mwhitticase@carers.org / 07824 539481
About Helensburgh and Lomond Carers SCIO.
The Charity has been supporting unpaid adult carers in Helensburgh & Lomond, which is part of Argyll & Bute, since it was established in 2000 and services for young carers were introduced in 2012. It is an independent Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, but has been a Network Member of the carers organisations across the UK operating under the umbrella of the Carers Trust and its predecessor, The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, since 2001.
The Carers Centre is located in Lomond House, Helensburgh, which acts is its administrative and operational base, and it shares the accommodation with NHS Highland’s Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services. The Charity provides a wide range of services for unpaid carers within the Centre and well as at other locations in Helensburgh & Lomond. It works closely with the other Carers Centres in Argyll & Bute, as well as third and statutory sector organisations operating in Helensburgh and Lomond, but particularly with services that are part of Argyll & Bute Health and Social Care Partnership.
It employs 8 members of staff who support over 800 active adult and young carers in Helensburgh and Lomond who are currently registered with the Charity. It’s governance is exercised by a Management Committee and of the 10 trustees, 8 are unpaid carers or former unpaid carers.