An “incredibly passionate” manager is in line for an award after completely revamping a Gwynedd care company’s training programme.

Impressed bosses at Meddyg Care, which has care homes in Porthmadog and Cricieth, say Osian Roberts has made an immediate impact, boosting staff retention and the standard of care delivered - even encouraging new staff to learn some Welsh.

As a result Osian has been put forward by Meddyg Care directors Kevin Edwards and Nicola Rutherford for a prestigious Wales Care Award.

Osian has been shortlisted in the Commitment to Training and Workforce Development category. The awards, organised by Care Forum Wales, will take place on Friday, 17 October in Cardiff.

Formerly a carer, team leader and member of the company's quality assurance team, Osian, who is based in Meddyg Care’s head office in Porthmadog, said: “It is so important that our residents, our service users, have highly trained carers looking after them.

“But it is also important for the carers themselves, because their work will be so much easier if they have been trained properly by people who are actually able to give real life experience and real life skills.

“It is about giving people the skills and confidence to make those important connections with our residents.

“That impacts positively on the care staff because if they’re not going into a shift stressed and unable to support people, then they are going to be in a better position to connect with people.”

Osian’s passion for care emerged when his late grandmother struggled with Alzheimer's disease.

“Eventually she didn’t know who I was, and I was left wondering what the point was in going to see her in her care home.

“Many years after that I got a job in a care home.

“I just took to it, I loved it.

“It was a dementia home and after a while of working there I realised how wrong I was in thinking my grandmother wouldn’t have known who I was, that she wouldn’t have been able to take anything from interactions with me.

“I realised then if I had gone to see her in the care home, that my grandmother might not have known who I was for two or three hours, but for five minutes I might have got a little bit of a twinkle of my gran.

“Or perhaps I might have given her a feeling of safety, that she would have known I was somebody who was kind and safe to be around.

“From there, I decided I wanted to train people and to show people what a positive impact you can have on people living with dementia.

“Just because they have got dementia, doesn’t mean they can’t live well, doesn’t mean they can’t have a quality of life.”

Bosses at Meddyg Care praised Osian in his dedication to the training role.

Director Kevin Edwards said: “Osian has completely revamped the training and induction programmes, with the benefits being felt across the care group as well as with service users.”