A senior carer in Largs will be recognised as among the leading care home employees in Scotland at a prestigious evening awards ceremony celebrating the best of the independent care home sector in Scotland.

Carla Silveira of Hutton Park Care Home has been nominated in the Emerging Talent Award category at the Scottish Care Awards 2017.

The awards celebrate the best of the independent care home sector in Scotland and have been hailed a huge success in recognising individuals, teams and companies, with more entries than ever flooding in each year from employers and employees nominating their peers and colleagues.

The winner will be announced at an Awards Ceremony on Friday at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow. The Awards Ceremony will be hosted by Michelle McManus, with nearly 700 people attending.

Carla said: “I was very surprised but thrilled and honoured to be chosen as a finalist in these prestigious awards.”

She was nominated by home manager Joe Janikowski, who said: “Carla worked as a lawyer in Venezuela with a good and reasonable quality of life. After falling in love with her husband she made the brave decision to move to Scotland in 2013. She began to study English on her own and worked as a volunteer. But this is what she wanted to do because she wanted to make a difference.

“Carla has a consistent, positive and supportive attitude. Her example of love,compassion and care are to be admired. You need to meet this lady - she makes us all want to do better. Ask her why she wants to do this job she says: ‘Because I love it’. I feel it in her passion, see it in her eyes.”

The care awards follow a full day conference with speakers including Professor Sir Harry Burns and the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, Shona Robison.

The Scottish Care National Care Home Conference & Exhibition, which is now in its 18th year and is sponsored by the Clydesdale Bank, has incorporated an awards ceremony for the last 13 years.

The conference focus this year is on the potential that care homes offer to support people to remain in a homely setting rather than in hospital, but also the challenges they face including funding shortages, a lack of nurses and a recruitment crisis.

The conference, exhibition and care awards are the largest of their kind for the care home sector in Scotland.