From spreadsheets to bedsheets: Financial services worker turned care home team member up for prestigious award
The community relations manager of a Warwick care home, who gave up a career in financial services to work with elderly residents, has been nominated for a prestigious award.
One of six Leycester House staff to be nominated for the Great British Care Awards, Ann-Marie Baker has been shortlisted for the Putting People First Award in the West Midlands region.
The 43-year-old called the nomination “my greatest career highlight,” after having taken a “leap of faith from my former career into the adult care sector”.
She previously spent 15 years working in financial services before changing her career and “never looking back” – she has now been working at Leycester House for nearly two years.
Her place on the shortlist was earned by helping residents feel comfortable going into a home, reassuring them and their families to make what is often a life-changing decision, Leycester House explained.
One of the home’s residents, Richard Baskerville, offered Baker his congratulations on the nomination, saying she had “made such a difference to my initial experience.
“Her kindness and her little chats are helping me to decide that perhaps I should stay long term.
“I wish her attitude and temperament could be cloned and rolled out to other care homes.”
Leycester House has also received nominations for ‘The Care Home Chef Award’; ‘The Care Home Worker Award’; ‘The Dignity in Care Award’; ‘The Palliative Care Award’; and ‘The Ancillary Worker Award’.
With the region’s winners set to be announced at a special event at the ICC in Birmingham this Saturday, residents and staff will have their fingers crossed for the nominees.
Leycester House’s general manager Tracy Barton says she is “thrilled” her team’s “hard work and dedication is being recognised,” calling the nominations “thoroughly deserved”.
The Edgehill Drive home is part of the Berkley Care Group, which operates luxury care homes such as Leycester House across the Midlands and south of England.
The full list of the Leycester House nominees for the Great British Care Awards 2022 (West Midlands Regional Division):
