This category is open to homes, organisations or individuals that can demonstrate innovative work that has improved the quality of life for residents through innovative working practices. The judges will also look for the effective and appropriate involvement of family members, volunteers and external community resources and opportunities for residents to experience familiar and new places of interest and to meet a broad range of people outside their normal encounters within the home.

In addition to providing a nutritious and varied diet, which meets the requirements of residents, the judges will be looking for initiatives which demonstrate a commitment to meeting up to date nutritional guidelines in both preparation and delivery.
The judges will also be looking for catering strategies that prevent malnutrition and prevent weight loss.

This award is open to any care home, domiciliary care service or individual that can demonstrate how high quality continence care is embedded in its dignity agenda. The judges will be looking for a person-centred approach that has resulted in clear evidence of the promotion of continence through the assessment and evaluation of containment products alongside dignity during toileting.

This award is open to nursing and residential home managers of all homes of any size. The judging panel will be looking for evidence of patient/resident satisfaction, the highest standards of care, outstanding leadership, initiatives to improve practice, and evidence of a motivated and person-focused individual.

This award will recognise someone who patients and colleagues identify as an outstanding nursing professional. The judges will look for evidence that this individual has made a real difference to the provision of care in their unit.  They will want evidence that the individual’s efforts and imagination have improved patient care and safety and has been a champion of infection prevention. This could be through leading improvement projects, innovative collaboration with their nursing peers and the wider multi-disciplinary team, or overcoming significant obstacles in their place of work.

The judges will be looking for someone who consistently puts those in their care first – a compassionate, skilled and dependable patient/resident focussed individual.   Evidence will be needed to show that the healthcare assistant has supported individual choice, maintained dignity, promoted independence and infection prevention, and has gone beyond basic duties to deliver the best of care.  The judges will be looking for someone who has championed resident advocacy, actively engaged in personal and professional development and acted as an ambassador for their professional code of practice.

Nominations for this award will be individuals whose prime responsibilities lie in providing background support and services. The judges will be looking for innovative ways in which administrative tasks have been delivered to enable nursing and healthcare colleagues deliver the best care to patients/residents.

This award will identify the home that provides a wide-ranging and high quality training syllabus for their staff. The evidence should prove that they facilitate training initiatives and programmes to develop the team’s knowledge and skills to improve the delivery of care within their setting. This award will not be presented to the company that simply spends the most time on training but one that demonstrates it embraces a culture of continuous learning and development by providing a variety of educational opportunities.

This award will go to an ancillary support worker (such as, but not exclusively, cook, porter, cleaner or maintenance) who has demonstrated a commitment to the well-being of patients beyond the traditional expectation of their job role and description.

This award recognises a nursing home which sets the highest standards in direct patient care, home management, general environment, hygiene, core and ancillary facilities and services, and catering, and evidence of a motivated and person-focused approach by all staff. Residential care homes with a nursing unit may enter the nursing unit in this category.

This award recognises a residential care home which sets the highest standards in direct patient care, home management, general environment, hygiene, core and ancillary facilities and services, and catering, and evidence of a motivated and person-focused approach by all staff. Nursing homes with a residential care unit may enter the residential care unit in this category.

This award recognises a care home group with two or more homes which sets the highest standards in direct patient care, home management, general environment, hygiene, core and ancillary facilities and services, and catering. The judging panel will be looking for, outstanding leadership and teamwork initiatives to improve practice, throughout the group.

This award will go to the home or organisation that has implemented a high quality process for the care of residents approaching the end of life. The judges will be looking for the proactive identification of the illnesses that will trigger an end of life care plan that has been agreed in advance by the resident and their family. This person-centred approach will ensure that, whenever possible, the resident’s preferred place of death has been achieved. The judges will also be looking for evidence of reduced hospital admissions and deaths in hospital and recognition by families of the quality of the end of life care that has been provided for their relative.

Should be an individual who exemplifies what it means to be a carer in the community.  They should be a shining example of competency, reliability and kindness.  The winner should enjoy their role while exuding an empathetic passion for the care of others in the community.  This award seeks to acknowledge and celebrate the dedication of this Carer and the difference they have made to the lives of the vulnerable people they are caring for.

This award celebrates a home care provider that delivers exceptional, person-centred support to individuals in their own homes, with compassion, innovation, and professionalism. It recognises excellence in care quality, workforce development, and creative approaches to sustaining high standards in community-based services. The judging panel will be looking for clear evidence of leadership, service impact, and continuous improvement—demonstrated through outcomes, testimonials, and initiatives that raise the bar for domiciliary care.

Criteria: This award celebrates a nursing agency in Northern Ireland that delivers outstanding staffing solutions across health and social care. The winner will demonstrate consistently high-quality, compassionate staff, strong support for training, development and wellbeing, reliable compliance and governance, and innovation in workforce management and service delivery. Judges will be looking for clear evidence of leadership, staff engagement and a proven track record of measurable impact on patient care and client satisfaction.