Hundreds of people have reason to thank a Vale of Glamorgan woman who has a rare talent for filling gaps.

Now that skill, coupled with boundless energy and a strong commitment to her work, has put Chrissy Darby in line for a prestigious award.

She has been shortlisted for one of this year’s Wales Care Awards, organized by Care Forum Wales to recognize outstanding work in the social care field. The glittering ceremony, sponsored by Meddyg Care,  will be held on October 17 in Cardiff’s Holland House Hotel.

Christine, known to many as Chrissy, is the Community Liaison Manager for the Home Instead home care company which provides home care for people in the Cardiff, Penarth and Barry Area, and it was the company’s owner and director Philip Batchelor who nominated her.

She has been shortlisted in the category for excellence in innovation within the independent sector, which is sponsored by Boots Care Services, and the category could almost have been designed with her in mind because so much of her work involves coming up with ideas to meet people’s needs and creating ways to support them.

Chrissy, 61, worked in the field of substance misuse in Sussex for many years before moving to South Wales for family reasons. She and her partner Andrew live in Sully.

She has been Community Liaison Manager for six years, her role being to raise awareness of what services Home Instead can offer and, as far as possible, ensuring that older and vulnerable people stay happy, healthy and connected.  Many of her projects help to reduce pressure on the NHS.

Philip Batchelor explained: “She achieves this by filling gaps in local service provision by creating a Home Instead group or by working in collaboration with third sector organizations where there are converging aims.”

She runs monthly group sessions such as Memory and Movement cafes in Whitchurch and Penarth , coffee mornings with interactive singing quizzes in Llandough and Barry and menopause support groups.

One of her innovations was a “Wheel of Life” talk, with an easy-to-understand diagram for groups and individuals to self-assess and to the various forms of support available.

“Chrissy’s approach to community working is to stand side-by-side with local authorities, the NHS, third sector organizations and those with lived experience to prevent as many people as possible falling through the nets of support,” said Philip.

 

Every year she collects Christmas gifts from local communities through supporting supermarkets and ensures they are all gift-wrapped and supplied to Age Connects for elderly and isolated people.

Chrissy says she derives great satisfaction from finding solutions which improve the quality of life and support for vulnerable people in the community.

“I am lucky to be working with so many like-minded people in the community,” she said.

Away from work, she and Andrew like nothing better than to go walking in the countryside in South Wales.

“It’s so important to me to be out amongst nature,” she said.

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 front line 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.”