Foster carer, Trish Warwick, is top of the class after hearing that she is one of only six people in the country to receive the Tallow Chandlers/City & Guilds Prize Award for Health and Social Care 2003. She is the first person in Devon to receive the prestigious award.

Trish, of Axminster, has been fostering for two years and is part of Devon County Council's Foster Service and has so far cared for seven children.

Foster carers are encouraged by the County Council to undertake National Vocational Qualifications to continue their own professional development, and to improve the service.

Devon offers free training, financial support and travel expenses to all of its carers.

Trish took ten months to achieve her NVQ Caring for Children and Young People, Level 3, and accomplished it to such high merit that the Learning and Development Team of the County Council nominated her for a City & Guilds Medal of Excellence award.

Group Manager for the Fostering Service, Andrea Morris, said: 'Trish's work towards her NVQ was outstanding. She showed such a strong and clear understanding of the subject and demonstrated her knowledge so well in the reports she wrote for the qualification. We're now using her work as an example to this year's NVQ intake as a suggested way of evidencing their work.'

Although nominated for the City & Guilds award, Trish is now set to take possibly two national awards in recognition of her outstanding achievement.

In February, she will be one of six people invited to an award ceremony in London to receive a cheque for £500, a medal and a framed Tallow Chandlers' Certificate of Excellence.

And she is also being considered by City & Guilds for a Medal of Excellence, which they are awarding at a ceremony

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