“Amazing” Carers’ Initiatives Earn “Well Deserved” Awards for BGU

The goal of the Carers Quality Award is to ensure the profile of unpaid carers in Lincolnshire is raised and the invaluable and essential contribution they make is recognised. Obtaining the awards shows that BGU demonstrates it understand the importance and efforts of carers and provides necessary support.

The push to obtain the awards was led by Leanne McHugh, Lecturer in Health & Social Care, who discussed her feelings of pride on accepting the accolades:

“It is amazing to see what started as a simple conversation grow and become embraced so quickly by the University community. The whole process has been incredible.

Highlighting the unpredictability of life as a carer was the core aim of our project with our main goal being that all carers at BGU, both staff and student, would be able to access support when they needed it.

Ultimately this is about so much more than winning this award. We want to make sure that our efforts have a positive, long term impact on the BGU community and with the help of our colleagues and I truly believe we’ve achieved that”

In addition to the Health & Social Care Team the project has brought together a wide range of groups from across BGU including the Wellbeing Steering Group, the Centre for Enhancement in Learning and Teaching, BGSU, Student Advice, HR, BG Futures and the Chaplaincy.

Together they’ve created a wide range of new policies, procedures, events and resources for carers. These include regular ‘Carers’ Cafés and picnics which aim to provide carers on campus with the opportunity to meet each other along with future plans to design a ‘Carers Passport’, that will allow carers to quickly and confidentially provide lecturers and employers with details of their responsibilities is one of the new projects that will commence shortly.

Presenting the award on behalf of Every-One, the carers’ charity, Julie Goy praised the BGU team saying she was delighted to have had the opportunity to work with them:

“This award is a well deserved recognition of the hard work that the team at BGU have put it. There are currently over 85,000 carers in Lincoln but only 40% are accessing support. If we can’t identify carers we can’t support them and that is why it is so important for organisations to openly offer appropriate resources.

The way BGU has embraced these initiatives has been amazing and their high quality submission is, without a doubt, one of the best we’ve ever seen. It has been a delight to work with them and I look forward to seeing how their efforts will continue in the years to come”

To find out how you can become a part of BGU’s collaborative learning community you can visit our website, speak to a member of our Enquiries Team or join us on one of our Open Days.