THE nation’s biggest animal charity has honoured the Forest Council’s street warden team for being the best innovators in the country.

The three-person team of Damion Collins, Gary Evans and Leah Treherne were announced as winners of the prestigious accolade at an RSPCA PawPrints ceremony at London’s Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

The team submitted a number of case studies showing how they improved support for pet owners who have dementia.

Discussions around these cases with Forest community engagement officer Lena Maller led to working with her team of ‘Dementia -friendly community enablers’, which resulted in the development and distribution of the ‘Pet Owners Living with Dementia’ and ‘A guide for Professionals’ leaflets.

Cllr Paul Hiett, the council’s Cabinet member for community safety, said: “The team became aware of several dog-owning residents with dementia who were experiencing difficulties in caring for their pets.

“Nevertheless, the residents clearly benefited very much from the presence of the pets to provide companionship and a link to the community, so rather than remove the pets from the care of their owners, the team – who have all had dementia awareness training – devised ways to provide extra care and support which would ensure the continued health and welfare of the pets. 

“The team worked closely with one of the Council’s community engagement officers to help address problems and concerns that they had encountered.

“This resulted in improvements to behaviours of the dog owners with dementia when caring for their pets, including the prevention of inadvertent dog fouling, support with the care and nutrition of a dog and planning ahead to secure the welfare of a dog before dementia advances to the stage where the owner can no longer cope.”

Rachel Williams, senior Parliamentary advisor at the RSPCA was impressed by the team’s response to these issues.

She said: “The judges all loved the Forest of Dean District Council’s entry for the innovator category at the PawPrints awards.

“The judges were particularly impressed by the way that the Forest team addressed an important and growing problem in a relatively simple way that any other local authority could adapt. Many congratulations to all involved.”

The council’s street warden team has already been awarded the RSPCA ‘Gold Footprint Award’ five times for its proactive work supporting animal welfare in the district, and this was recently upgraded to a Platinum Award in honour of its achievement.

Its duties include the provision of a dog warden service, and dealing with littering and abandoned vehicles

For winning the award, the team received a trophy, a certificate and an ‘Innovator’ logo to use on their organisation’s website and letterheads.