A St Albans support worker has received an award because of the courage he shows in supporting people with learning disabilities.

Tinofara Hapaguti is a support worker at Nicholas House in Cairns Close, a residential house for six people with autism and learning disabilities.

On finding out he had received the award, Tinofara said: "To me courage is about standing up for what you believe in and forge forward with what you have to do despite what others might think of you for doing it."

Tinofara was one of six winners at Dimensions' first Inspiring People awards, where 5,000 staff voted for other members of staff who show commitment values of ambition, respect, courage, integrity and partnership.

Nicholas House is operated by not-for-profit support provider Dimensions. Tinofara was on holiday in Zimbabwe when the awards ceremony took place in London on Thursday (September 13).

However, his award will be given to him on his return.

Katrina Ruddick, assistant manager and Tinofara’s line manager, said: "Tinofara has shown courage by standing up and taking the lead in improving communications with and for people with learning disabilities at Nicholas House.

"We have been teaching one gentleman how to use a picture exchange system to communicate what he wants, another has a visual schedule in his room with symbols so he knows what he is doing during the week and another young man is supported to write out his schedule on a daily basis.

"Tinofara worked with the Dimensions behaviour analyst and performance coach and involved people he supports and their families to produce personalised guidelines, which all staff could then follow.

"He set up the communication systems and coached staff to ensure they were being used and being used consistently by everybody."