Commercial laundry specialist WASHCO announced the winners of the 2023 Love Laundry Awards at this year’s Care Show at NEC Birmingham.
WASHCO’s Love Laundry Awards were established three years ago to recognise the unsung heroes of laundry who work tirelessly to keep care homes’ clean and safe, thus protecting residents’ welfare and wellbeing.
This year, the winner of the Laundry Hero award was Waratthaya Watters from The Dower House Nursing Home in Winchester.
Waratthaya was nominated for the award by her housekeeping manager, Claire Wallis, who said: “Waratthaya displays excellent attention to detail and commitment to her work. Our laundry processes high quality cashmere garments that need specific care. Our residents have confidence in Waratthaya's ability to properly care for their treasured garments.”
Meanwhile, the Laundry Care Home Team award went to Gower Gardens, part of Kingsley Care, as the care home showed outstanding teamwork in their laundry.
Hospitality manager Holly Payn, who nominated Gower Gardens for this award, said: “I have worked in many different organisations and have never known a team to work so closely and well together. The team are fully flexible with each other to ensure the rota is covered at all times. Some domestic staff were previously carers and will not think twice about going onto care, should they be needed, to help cover staff sickness etc. They all boost staff morale around the home and have excellent relationships with all our residents and their families. We receive positive feedback daily regarding how well they work to keep the home clean from top to bottom!”
Finally, the winner of the new Care Home Group award was Sense Residential Care, who were nominated by property administration manager Beverley Andrews.
Beverley said: “Changes to our processes have made laundry care a more important part of our business. Over the past couple of years, Sense has made a conscious decision to upgrade our laundry equipment by installing better fit for purpose machines, so that our service users, and indeed our staff, can benefit from a more efficient, effective and safer wash.”
WASHCO’s head of marketing & projects Emily Stoten commented: “We’d like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to all of our very deserving 2023 Love Laundry Award winners. We received a record number of entries and we were really impressed with the exceptionally high standard this year. The dedication and commitment shown by each of our winners will leave a lasting impression on us. We can’t wait to launch the awards again in 2024!”
