Our double win at the South West Care Awards

In December 2025, at a gala night at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Plymouth, Kintota walked away from the South West Care Awards with two trophies, not one. Employer of the Year. Rising Star of the Year, won by our Operations Manager, Lucy Hendy. The Plymouth Chronicle called it plainly: “Double Awards Success for Plymouth Care Provider.” We’d call it the same thing.

How did Kintota even start?

Donna Davies didn’t come into care through the traditional route. She’d spent 30 years in recruitment before her purpose was “revealed” to her, in her own words, during the COVID-19 lockdown. It started with something small: helping an elderly neighbour with his shopping. That one act of noticing someone who needed help, and simply giving it, is the whole origin story of Kintota. Five years on, it’s grown into a care provider built around exactly that instinct — see what someone actually needs, then show up for it.

What did Employer of the Year actually recognise?

Not a single big gesture, but the accumulation of a lot of smaller ones. Staff socials every couple of months. Milestone gifts for birthdays, weddings and anniversaries. In-house counsellors, available to any member of staff who needs to talk. Private health insurance that covers staff and up to two children each. Flexible scheduling when childcare or a family emergency gets in the way of a shift. Funded training — Mental Health First Aid, safeguarding, dementia training, breakaway training, and fully funded NVQs for staff who want to progress.

Donna put it like this when the award was announced: “We’re not just building a business. We’re building a movement. One that’s driven by values, fuelled by passion, and focused on impact.” It’s the same six values (respect, compassion, integrity, wellbeing, empowerment and excellence) that have sat behind Kintota since 2020, just recognised, finally, by people outside the building.

What does Lucy’s story tell you about Rising Star?

Lucy Hendy joined Kintota in March 2023, straight from a background in the NHS. Her role since has been genuinely hard to pin down in one sentence — logistics, rota-juggling, and what her nomination described as being “a trusted confidante” to the people she works with. Lucy has talked about believing in “accepting everyone as they are,” and about looking past the easiest explanation for someone’s behaviour to find what’s actually going on underneath it. That’s not a small skill in this line of work. It’s arguably the whole job.

Donna’s words about her, when Lucy won: “Lucy is a catalyst. Her rise is no accident — it’s the result of relentless commitment and a hunger to serve.” Less than three years from joining the team to standing on a stage with a trophy in her hands isn’t an accident, no. It’s what happens when someone is given real responsibility and takes it seriously, every single day, without being asked to.

Why do two awards on the same night matter?

Because they’re not the same award. Employer of the Year says something about Kintota as an organisation — how staff are looked after, trained, paid attention to, given real reasons to stay. Rising Star says something about one person’s growth within that organisation. Winning both, at the same ceremony, is Kintota’s own story told twice: the environment, and the person the environment made room for.

For clients, that matters more than a trophy on a shelf might suggest. An organisation that’s genuinely good to work for keeps its staff longer, and clients feel that continuity directly — the same faces, the same trust built over months rather than restarted every few weeks with someone new. For staff, it’s proof that the way Kintota talks about looking after its people isn’t just something written on a poster in the office. It’s something an awards panel looked at closely enough to award, twice, in one evening.

What’s changed since the ceremony?

Not the mission — that’s stayed exactly the same since Donna helped that neighbour with his shopping. What’s changed is confidence. Two awards from the same night is the kind of validation that’s hard to argue with, and it’s given the whole team something to point to when they’re telling someone new — a prospective client, a prospective member of staff — what Kintota is actually like to be part of.

Where can you read more?

If you’d like to hear what clients and families say about the team in their own words, have a look at kind words. And if the idea of joining a team that’s just been recognised twice in one night has you curious about what that actually looks like day to day, our staff journey walks through it from first enquiry to your first shift.

Two trophies, one team, five years in the making. We’re proud of both.