Bedewell Grange in Hebburn has been crowned Garden of the Year for the NE & Scotland Division in the Barchester Care Awards 2025 and is through to the national round of judging.

The Barchester Care Awards celebrate staff and care homes who go the extra mile for the benefit of the 13,500 residents living in Barchester’s 267 care homes and private hospitals across the country. Categories range from ‘Registered Nurse of the Year’ and ‘Carer of the Year’ to ‘Dementia Care Champion’ and ‘Garden of the Year’.

Over 5,000 nominations were received from homes and hospitals across the UK. All entries were a very high standard and Bedewell Grange is over the moon to have been named the winner for the North East, beating hundreds of other nominees.

Activities Co-Ordinator, Donna Ward said: ‘I am so proud that Bedewell was nominated and has gone onto win this wonderful award. When we first started to discuss the garden in our monthly residents meeting, everyone was keen to create a sensory space that everyone could enjoy. We are lucky to have lots of regular visits to the home from local nurseries, the little movers as well as residents’ families and the children of our wonderful staff. The residents wanted to create a space that the kids would love and were so enthusiastic to get going’.

‘This really has really been a huge team effort with residents, families and staff all putting in so much hard work. We have received so many donations from everyone involved, as well as a £100 grant from The Wickes community programme which has all gone to help us create our vision, so it really has been a bit of a community project. The residents in particular have loved getting out in the fresh air, many are keen gardeners and they have relished putting their gardening skills into action.’

The resident was involved in all of the planting and maintaining the flowers pots and garden. They also helped paint all of the features and helped design the whole area, going to the garden centre to buy the supplies and deciding what went were. The garden includes a summer house, mud kitchen, fairy toad stools, wind catchers, butterflies, herb garden and lots of plants and flowers.

As the winner for NE & Scotland division, Bedewell Grange is through to the national finals in which the overall winner is decided. They will join winners from across the UK at a special awards event in October to celebrate their outstanding achievements and discover if they have won a national award.

Senior General Manager, Rebecca Travis said: “This is an amazing achievement and the whole home is so excited to see how we fair in the national awards in October. We are so proud of everyone involved particularly our residents and activities co-ordinator Donna who really helped make the residents vision come to life. When we told the residents we had won the North East title they were over the moon and their smiles were a pleasure to see.’

Bedewell Grange is run by Barchester Healthcare, one of the UK’s largest care providers, which is committed to delivering high-quality care across its care homes and hospitals. Bedewell Grange provides residential care, respite care.