Alan Howells recognised for Lifetime of Specialist Care

Alan Howells, Clinical Lead at Community Integrated Care’s pioneering specialist dementia care service, EachStep Blackley, collected two awards at the Laing Buisson Independent Specialist Care Award – including the prestigious Outstanding Contribution Award.

Alan collected both the Training and Dissemination of Good Practice Award, recognising his mentoring and development of colleagues at EachStep, as well as the Outstanding Contribution Award, celebrating his 30 year career in the care sector.

The Laing Buisson Independent Specialist Care Awards took place at the London Lancaster Hotel on 12th March and were presented by politician, Michael Portillo. This annual awards ceremony celebrates excellence in social care services for adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities or mental health conditions.

Alan joined Community Integrated Care in 1988, supporting people to move from institutional hospitals to more independent lives in the community. Alan was a true pioneer of Care in the Community, at a time when the concept was new and challenging to many members of the public and care professionals.

As Alan’s career developed, he took on many roles for our charity, including Home Manager, Locality Manager and Operational Director, gaining a strong insight of how to deliver excellent care and support in a number of different settings.

At the start of the millennium, Alan took on a new challenge – deciding to share his considerable experience by working in learning and development, leading our Training team. In 2008, he and his colleagues were recognised at the National Training Awards.

In 2009, Alan again took his career in a new and dynamic direction – becoming Clinical Learning Specialist for our charity. In this role, Alan delivered specialist training and support to meet challenges within services. As part of this new role, he created a unique BTEC Level 2 course in Dementia Awareness. This high-calibre course has given many frontline dementia carers access to high-quality accredited training.

In 2010, Community Integrated Care devised plans for our EachStep model of dementia care, which sees us provide integrated dementia care to assist people with the condition each step of the way. Alan was appointed as the clinical lead for this groundbreaking service, sharing his specialist knowledge of dementia to help us formulate our plans.

Alan has made an incredible contribution to the success of EachStep Blackley. He applied his expert understanding of dementia to support our choice of facilities and assistive technologies, developed an in-depth training programme for colleagues and has overseen values–based recruitment of staff. He continues to work at EachStep, providing clinical guidance and ongoing specialist training to colleagues, for which he collected the Training award.

Beyond his work with Community Integrated Care, Alan has volunteered his support to hundreds of individuals and community groups – generously sharing his specialist understanding of dementia and mental health issues.

Neil Matthewman, Chief Executive of Community Integrated Care, says: “Alan Howells has had a long and incredibly successful care in the social care sector. In his 30 years of working in care, he has changed the lives of countless people who access support and staff. He is rightly regarded as an inspiration within our charity and we are thrilled that he received these well-deserved honours.”