An “incredibly passionate” manager is in line for an award after completely revamping a Gwynedd care company’s training programme.
Impressed bosses at Meddyg Care, which has care homes in Porthmadog and Cricieth, say Osian Roberts, has made an immediate impact, boosting staff retention and the standard of care delivered – and even encouraging new staff to learn some Welsh.
As a result Osian has been put forward by Meddyg Care directors Kevin Edwards and Nicola Rutherford, for a prestigious Wales Care Award.
The awards are organised by Care Forum Wales to pay tribute to the frontline heroes of social care.
The glittering ceremony will be taking place on Friday, October 17, at the Holland House Hotel in Cardiff.
Osian has been shortlisted in the Commitment to Training and Workforce Development category.
The category is sponsored by City & Guilds.
Formerly a carer, team leader and member of the company’s quality assurance team, Osian, who is based in Meddyg Care’s head office in Porthmadog, said it was vital that care companies’ training and induction programmes were of an excellent standard.
He said: “Firstly, it is so important that our residents, our service users, have highly trained carers looking after them.
“But it is also important for the carers themselves, because their work will be so much easier if they have been trained properly by people who are actually able to give real life experience and real life skills.
“They have a two-week induction with me before they even go to a care home.
“I usually have a class of 6 people and we have two weeks together to look at learning what they need to do – that includes manual handling and advanced dementia care.
“We employ a great mix of people from the local area plus a number from overseas so we do everything from making a cup of tea, to teaching them about Welsh culture. This makes for a fun and vibrant learning environment.
“It includes Welsh lessons which are always fun, that’s great to do.
“After two weeks with me in the training centre they go up to the homes where they do shadow shifts with their team leader and at the end of the month they have a supervision with me just to see how things are going and to see if they require any additional support.
“It is about giving people the skills and confidence to make those important connections with our residents.
“That impacts positively on the care staff because if they’re not going into a shift stressed and unable to support people, then they are going to be in a better position to connect with people.”
Osian said staff were well supported by bosses at the company.
He said: “The staffing levels are good at Meddyg Care, and that comes from the resources that we are given, so that impacts on our good staff retention.
“People are given proper training, there’s social events that they can go to, and as a company we are interested in our team, and there is always career progression.”
Osian said his passion for care first emerged after witnessing his late grandmother’s struggles with Alzheimer’s disease.
He said: “Eventually she didn’t know who I was, and I was left wondering what the point was in going to see her in her care home.
“Many years after that I got a job in a care home.
“I just took to it, I loved it.
“It was a dementia home and after a while of working there I realised how wrong I was in thinking my grandmother wouldn’t have known who I was, that she wouldn’t have been able to take anything from interactions with me.
“I realised then if I had gone to see her in the care home, that my grandmother might not have known who I was for two or three hours, but for five minutes I might have got a little bit of a twinkle of my gran.
“Or perhaps I might have given her a feeling of safety, that she would have known I was somebody who was kind and safe to be around.
“From there, I decided I wanted to train people and to show people what a positive impact you can have on people living with dementia.
“Just because they have got dementia, doesn’t mean they can’t live well, doesn’t mean they can’t have a quality of life.”
Bosses at Meddyg Care praised Osian in his dedication to the training role.
Director Kevin Edwards said: “In his role as training manager, Osian has completely revamped the training and induction programmes, with the benefits being felt across the care group as well as with service users.
“Osian sets the foundation for the Meddyg Care way, ensuring consistency and high-quality tailored care.
“His training records are immaculate, and staff retention is very strong, with people understanding their roles and not feeling uneasy or unsure about their responsibilities.
“They enjoy coming to work, feel comfortable, and confident, and it’s down to the training they receive from Osian.
“Osian is a driven Welsh speaker and is extremely passionate about preserving the language and culture.
“He is always aiming to support people to learn the Welsh language and to converse with service users in Welsh if they prefer.”
Mario Kreft MBE, the Chair of Care Forum Wales, said: “Care Forum Wales has been working tirelessly for more than 30 years to promote the social care sector.
“We established the Wales Care Awards to show our appreciation to the workforce and the wider sector for the remarkable and vitally important contribution everybody makes, day in day out.
“The event underlines the importance of the social care sector. It is the glue that binds our communities together, both socially and economically.
“Our mission is to be the voice of social care in Wales to advocate on the sector’s behalf, holding truth to power in order to secure a fair deal to recognise the dedication of our frontline heroes and heroines across our nation.
“If you don’t value the people who do the caring, you will never provide the standards that people need and never recognise the value of the people who need the care in society.
“Every single one of our finalists is a winner and will be presented with a gold, silver or bronze award.”
