North Wales mum shortlisted for Wales Care Awards
Jenna Evans, who trains up to 3,000 care workers a year, has been named a finalist in the Commitment to Training and Development
Jenna Evans, a 42‑year‑old mother from Wrexham, has been named a finalist in the Commitment to Training and Development category at this year’s Wales Care Awards.
The ceremony will be held at the Holland House Hotel in Cardiff on 16 October, bringing together finalists from across Wales to celebrate excellence in social care.
Evans heads the Pendine Academy of Social Care, a training hub that equips up to 3,000 care workers each year for roles in north and mid Wales.
The academy supports staff from thirty care providers, and its team of seven assessors and three administrators operates from a virtual training centre that recreates a resident’s lounge, bedroom and dining area.
“I am really honoured to be named a finalist, I’m very proud of that and my family are all very proud of me too,” Evans said.
“We are always busy at the academy, no day is the same, but it is hugely rewarding,” she added.
“We have about 850 staff in our homes at Pendine alone, and I oversee all their training, but I don’t, and couldn’t, do it on my own – it is a team effort,” Evans explained.
The academy’s toolkit includes in‑house modules, home‑based trainers and regular trainer‑network meetings to ensure consistency and evidence‑based practice.
“I have amazing staff in my team by my side who share my passion to deliver the best training possible,” Evans said.
“I just love my job because I love developing others and seeing how they improve what they do all the time,” she remarked.
“At the end of the day, all our staff have to be highly trained to deliver safe care, that is the most important thing, and we can do that through our own academy,” Evans noted.
“Our carers must be highly skilled because they support some of our community’s most vulnerable people, some of our residents have challenging needs and you have to do specific training around that,” she added.
Evans began working in dementia care as a teenager and now lives in Wrexham with partner Gavin Adamson and their 16‑year‑old son Dylan, who is set to start an enhanced Level 3 engineering course at Coleg Cambria.
“A lot of our assessors have come from being a care worker at Pendine and have progressed their careers from there, there is a real career pathway here,” she said.
“I chose health and social care because I really wanted to do something which I knew would be rewarding to me,” Evans explained.
Former academy manager Ann Serridge praised Evans, saying she “consistently demonstrates a high level of knowledge, skill and dedication to best practice” and “ensures that all assessment decisions are fair, evidence‑based and fully aligned with regulatory requirements”.
Mario Kreft MBE, co‑founder of the Pendine Park care organisation and founder of the Wales Care Awards, said “Jenna plays such an important role in the training of our country’s carers and being named a finalist is a well‑deserved honour”.
Pendine Park, which runs nine care homes in Wrexham and Caernarfon, established the academy nine years ago and has become a regional leader in care‑worker training.
With 23 years of experience in social care, Evans combines frontline insight with managerial expertise, positioning the academy as a model for other Welsh providers.
The Wales Care Awards, now in their twentieth year, aim to recognise individuals and teams who raise the standard of care across the nation, and Evans’s nomination shines a spotlight on the vital work that underpins quality care in north Wales.