What Makes Unique Homecare an Award-Winning Home Care Provider
Unique Homecare Services Ltd has been named a finalist in the Outstanding Home Care Provider Award, North, a category that looks beyond scheduled visits to how well a provider understands each person as an individual. Being shortlisted for award-winning home care recognition of this kind reflects years of consistent, person-centred practice rather than a single standout moment.
The judging criteria for this category consider dignity, independence and comfort at home. For a service built on knowing families personally, from favourite routines to the small things that bring comfort, this finalist place is a proud reflection of everyday work, not a one-off achievement.
Judges assessing candidates for award-winning home care typically look beyond care plans and policies, important as those are, and towards evidence of how care actually feels for the person receiving it. That means asking whether someone feels safe, heard and genuinely understood, not simply whether a rota has been followed. It is a higher bar than most families realise, and it is one that cannot be met by paperwork alone.
Meet the Team Behind Our Award-Winning Home Care
Recognition for award-winning home care is never about one person. It reflects an entire team, and several individuals at Unique Homecare have been shortlisted in their own right this year.
Cheryl Sodeau has been named a finalist in the Dementia Specialist Award. Dementia care requires patience, emotional intelligence and the skill to see the person behind the diagnosis. Cheryl’s recognition reflects the compassion and knowledge she brings to families navigating one of the most difficult journeys they will face.
Lauren Turner has been named a finalist in the Dedicated Home Care Coordinator Award. Coordination is often invisible to families, yet it is what keeps care running smoothly behind the scenes, from communication with health professionals to reassurance when plans change at short notice.
Unique Homecare has also been recognised as a finalist in the Girl Power Award, Team Category, part of the Women Achieving Greatness Awards. This celebrates a team that leads with compassion and resilience, and it sits proudly alongside the organisation’s other award-winning home care recognitions this year.
Great British Care Awards 2025: Further Recognition
Alongside these individual honours, Unique Homecare has been named a North-West regional finalist in six categories at the Great British Care Awards 2025:
- The Home Care Coordinator Award
- The Home Care Registered Manager Award
- The Dignity in Care Award
- The Care Innovator Award
- The Outstanding Contribution to Social Care Award
- The Home Care Employer Award
Each category reflects a different part of what families rely on: leadership, innovation, dignity and fair treatment of the team delivering care. Being shortlisted across so many categories at once, on top of the individual and organisational finalist places above, is a strong indicator of consistent, award-winning home care rather than a single area of excellence.
What Award-Winning Home Care Looks Like in Practice
Awards and finalist certificates matter, but families rarely choose a provider on the strength of a trophy alone. What they want to know is what award-winning home care actually looks like on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon.
In practice, it looks like:
- A carer who remembers exactly how someone likes their tea
- A team that responds quickly when a family member is worried, day or night
- Care plans that adapt when circumstances change, not months later
- Coordinators who keep families informed without needing to be chased
- Dignity protected consistently during personal care
These are the details that award panels are trained to notice, and they are the same details families notice too. A finalist place is, in many ways, external confirmation of what clients in home care in Garstang and nearby areas already experience week to week.
What This Means for Families in Garstang
Award recognition is encouraging, but its real value lies in what it signals locally. Families across Garstang, Longridge, Galgate, Cockerham and Forton are not choosing a national brand with a call centre. They are choosing carers who know the local pharmacy, the nearest GP surgery and the roads that flood after heavy rain.
For these families, award-winning home care is less about a certificate on a wall and more about a familiar face arriving when expected, a coordinator who answers the phone personally, and a 24/7 WhatsApp line to the owner and registered manager for moments that cannot wait until office hours. Finalist recognition simply confirms, from an outside perspective, what many local families searching for award-winning home care have quietly known for some time.
Why Recognition Matters When Choosing Home Care in Lancashire
Choosing a care provider for a parent or partner is rarely straightforward, and it often happens at a stressful time. Independent recognition can offer a useful, if partial, way to narrow down the search.
Age UK’s guidance on arranging homecare recommends checking CQC registration and looking for evidence of consistent, well-led care, alongside personal recommendations from people who have used a provider. Award finalist status sits alongside these checks rather than replacing them. It is one more piece of evidence that a provider’s day-to-day standards hold up to outside scrutiny, not just its own marketing.
For families comparing award-winning home care options across Lancashire, it is worth asking any prospective provider what evidence they can offer beyond their own website, whether that is a CQC rating, sector award recognition, or honest references from current clients who have experienced their award-winning home care first-hand.
How to Get Started
Being named a finalist across so many award categories is a proud moment, but the real measure of award-winning home care will always be the families who welcome the team into their homes. These recognitions belong to everyone connected with Unique Homecare, from the carers on daily visits to the coordinators working behind the scenes.
Awards will always matter less than the everyday reality of care. What they offer families is a starting point, a reason to ask questions, request references and compare providers with more confidence. Whether or not a family ever mentions the finalist certificates, the same standards that earned them shape every visit, every phone call and every care plan that follows.
If you are exploring home care in Garstang, Longridge or the surrounding Lancashire towns and want to understand what award-winning home care could look like for your family, for a no-obligation conversation about care in your area, contact our team directly.
