We have some fantastic employees at MacIntyre and every month one person from each division is chosen to be our Employee of the Month.
And this month we have not one but two winners from the Children and Young People division - they are both so excellent the judges couldn't choose between them!
Below are the names of the winners in the categories of MacIntyre Adult Services, Children and Young People, MacIntyre No Limits™, and Specialist Support Services, together with an extract from their nominations.
Colin Burrell: Adult Services, The Wirral
Colin has a caring and gentle manner, he is always ready to offer his support to everybody .He spends time listening and trying to find ways to help, even when everybody else is at a loss.
Colin has recently researched and spent hours learning how to support a gentleman with the use of his VR headset, sometimes giving up his own time to see something through. Colin really deserves this recognition.
Paul Cox: Children and Young People, Hertfordshire
We have a young person at Woodland View who has an extremely limited diet, consisting of yoghurts, crisps, baby foods and biscuits. Paul has, without being asked to do so, begun to look at ways to increase the nutrition of the food that this young man is eating. Paul has seen that he will eat things like fruit based baby food and has then taken the flavours such as banana, apple, pear etc and created this at Woodland View for the young man to try.
Paul has also added other foods which the young man will not usually try such as sweet potato to help him try new foods. Paul has also looked at the types of yoghurt that the young man eats and has introduced him to different types such as: kefir, plant based and homemade. Paul has also looked at his crisp intake and has purchased alternatives such as lentil and vegetable crisps for him to try. This has been positive and the young man is trying and enjoying the vast majority of what Paul has made and this is a great start for him.
Paul has also created nutrition informational sheets for staff to look at. Paul has created suggestions for meals for this young man that are filling for him and also appropriate calorie wise.
Ellis Fox: Children and Young People, Wingrave
Ellis, at 18, is the most naturally gifted person I have ever seen work with children. He is so attuned to their needs and adjusts his approach to each of the young people he encounters to ensure he is meeting them at their level.
He consistently posts wonderful evidence for learning and is the only one of the team besides myself (and I do not do it nearly enough) who writes up achievements for our students. He has worked particularly hard with one young person by encouraging her to use her device to communicate with us more. Today he was able to get her to express her feelings, not just a request. This is a huge achievement for her but also for Ellis. I truly believe without his hard work this young woman would not have made so much progress in her communication.
Sensitive, empathetic, and highly engaging, Ellis is someone all Learning Support Assistants (and teachers!) should look up to - and this is only his first year at MacIntyre!
Jodie Baldwin: No Limits, Oxfordshire
Jodie never ceases to display high resilience and commitment to her role and enjoys taking on new challenges. She is very supportive of her colleagues and is always willing to step in and lend a helping hand to anyone who needs it. She is flexible, easily adaptable and reliable, and line managing her is a pleasure.
Amber Falconer: Specialist Support Services
Amber started working at MacIntyre in January and quickly became an integral part of the Milton Keynes Adult Services Admin team.
However, it is for her work with the area's health and safety reps committee that I would like to nominate her. Some might say that health and safety is rather a dry topic and, indeed, we have struggled in the past to make the committee meetings engaging, worthwhile and (dare I say it?) enjoyable. Once she had found her feet, Amber was tasked with just that and what a success! She has really made the group her own, devising fun quizzes, supported by a pack of information, based around each element of the emergency drills schedule, for reps to complete and discuss in the meeting before taking them back to their services to complete with colleagues in team meetings.
Described as "very confident and well organised" by the MK service manager, Amber has definitely succeeded in revitalising our reps committee and making Health & Safety fun!