Shaun Williamson Presents Awards
The 2007 Beaumont-Grainger Awards were held on 4th October 2007 and presented by Actor, Shaun Williamson. We were delighted to show our appreciation to Donna Goudie (Foster Carer), Jane Sedgwick (Autism Specialist) and Sarah Davies (Kent NHS Community Paediatric Nurse Team Leader). We were joined by Gary Beckwith (NAS Accreditation Programme) who shared with the audience of how Credo Care became the first foster care service in the UK to obtain the award.
Shaun told the audience that it was “a pleasure to be here”, he had a lot of respect for the work that the foster carers did and he knew that “the real stars are here today”. He continued “I have two kids who are 9 and 6 years old, I found it difficult to get them a packed lunch and get them out of the house this morning”, referring to the amount of care and hard work that our foster carers do “it brings home what is actually involved”.
Gary Beckwith explained about the NAS Accreditation Programme that it is focussed on the development of person centred services and there are 30 standards to show evidence of working with fostered children who have autism. This includes learning and development and individual support services based on a clear understanding of autism.
With Credo Care “there were no specialist standards for a fostering agency. Credo Care has had an integral role in putting the standards together for hundreds of foster care agencies nationally and worldwide. The NAS had to grow and adapt to the needs of this new client group. In June of this year, Credo Care was the first fostering agency in the world to get the Accreditation. The journey was not easy. There were specific issues of getting evidence to support the portfolio of evidence. The inspection was a thorough 5 day review of the service, staff and carers were interviewed. The final report was presented to an independent panel. Credo Care more than deserved the Accreditation badge.”
He concluded that “autism specialist support services in foster care can work, managed by foster families themselves with a great deal of love and common sense. With the support of Credo Care, the families are able to help the young people gain their individual needs, abilities and aspirations.”
Pictured above are the award winners with The Very Rev Damien Mead (Chairman and CEO), together with Shaun Williamson and the Mayors of Ashford and Lydd.
More details can be found in our website on the Beaumont-Grainger Award page.
Last updated: Wednesday 10th October, 2007