Wirral’s Autism Together Scoops Two National Care Awards

Wirral-based charity Autism Together, which employs more than a thousand people across the North West and Wales, has won two prestigious national awards celebrating its work in residential care and community services.

The charity’s purpose-built home for people with very complex autism, The Willows, won a Laing Buisson care award.  The Willows is also the only North West care home to have received an ‘outstanding’ grade from the Care Quality Commission.  Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth, presenting the trophy to the care team at a gala dinner in London on 29 November, congratulated them on this significant achievement for such a new project.

At the Third Sector Care Awards, held in London on 7 December, Port Sunlight River Park, which Autism Together runs on behalf of land management charity the Land Trust,  received an award for community engagement from Dame Esther Rantzen.  The judges were impressed by the origins of the park – which began life as a 78-acre landfill site and was transformed into a wildlife haven and recreational area – and by the way the whole local community was becoming involved in the park.

Autism Together Chief Executive Officer Robin Bush said that these award wins were greatly deserved by his team and reflected the charity’s mission to be the best at everything it did. He said, “This is actually the third year in a row that we’ve won a Laing Buisson award – our Step into Work Plus and garden centre teams have also won in the past. I’m incredibly proud of our whole team. You don’t win these trophies by luck – there’s a lot of effort going into this.”

During 2016 Port Sunlight River Park has also won a Wirral Third Sector award, reached the finals of the Liverpool Echo environment awards and been highly commended in the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors awards.  Park ranger Anne Litherland won the park ranger of the year title in the Land Trust awards.