We are proud to announce that our Hales Heroes awards are continuing, and the first winner of 2019 is Dragos Cojucaru, a care worker from our Ipswich branch who was also one of the first winners of the Hales Gold award!

The Hales Heroes award programme was introduced in 2017 as a way to incentivise our existing staff to continue their hard work, while recognising and rewarding those willing to go above and beyond their call of duty, providing outstanding care to vulnerable people across the UK.

Those who meet the criteria, which focuses on reliability, quality and professional competence, are entered into a monthly draw with the opportunity of winning £1,000 and being hailed as a Hales Hero. Since it was introduced, nearly 2,500 care workers have qualified for the draws, there have been 13 Hales Heroes winners of the £1,000 prize and 32 Gold Award winners, who’ve demonstrated continual excellence over 6-month period.
With over 850,000 people currently receiving support in their own home and with these numbers increasing, care staff under growing pressure, which is why it is so important to recognise those who are committed to the cause, whilst also encouraging new recruits into the industry. This is the reason we introduced our awards in the first place.

This month’s winner, Dragos Cojucaru, commented, “I’m pleasantly surprised that I won, I didn’t expect that. It will help me for sure in near future. It all happened thanks to my partner and to the office staff. I’m just doing my job and as I can see it counts. I’m happy to be Hales Carer. Thank you.”

Julie Anderson, Hales Care Ipswich Branch Manager said, “Dragos has worked for Hales Ipswich since July 2015, I was privileged to inherit Dragos when I started my job in 2017. Dragos is a brilliant care worker who always ensures he is compliant. He has an excellent attendance record and has completed his NVQ3 in Health and Social Care. Dragos always log in and out of his calls and is very professional at all times. I am really pleased that Dragos won the £1,000 prize as I know him and his partner are currently looking into buying their own house.”
We believe it is only by supporting our workforce, rewarding them for the work that they do and recognising the challenges they face that the industry can start to raise the profile of care workers and demonstrate to those considering the profession, the value of care workers in their communities.