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Posted on 22 Mar 2015

The achievements of Nottinghamshire Healthcare's staff, volunteers and partner organisations were celebrated at the Trust's annual OSCARS award ceremony last night (Thursday 12 March).  

The ‘Outstanding Service Contribution and Recognition Scheme' (OSCARS) is held to recognise and reward those people who have gone the extra mile to provide high quality health services.

Winners were announced at a special ceremony at Goosedale in Papplewick, Nottingham.

The OSCARS comprises nine categories for awards including unsung hero, lifetime achievement, leadership and team of the year. Just over 130 nominations were received, made by staff, service users and carers, with 35 individuals and teams shortlisted.

This was the twelfth OSCARS and the first to include a new category of Outstanding Care and Compassion Award, recognising the achievements of someone who goes that extra mile to ensure their service is caring and compassionate and makes a difference to the lives of patients, service users and/or carers. The recipient of this award was Keith Sykes, former Intensive Intervention Team Lead at Thorneywood Adolescent Unit.

Keith's nominator said that he goes above and beyond in everything he does every day for young people:

“From spending more time on them if they need, to taking them out places if they don't want to be seen at home, or just bringing them things like relevant poems and leaflets he has found. All of these things come so naturally, they are clearly his genuine caring instinct. Not that it is easy. He works ridiculously hard every single day, and it pays off. He helped save my life.”

Other individuals and teams to receive accolades on the night included the Podiatry - Dialysis Foot Team, who won the Innovator of the Year Award. This team launched a completely new way of working, providing community care on hospital premises. They've had fantastic support to get the service up and running, and the feedback from patients has been overwhelmingly positive.

Dr Jennifer Clegg, Associate Professor and Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Highbury Hospital won a Lifetime Achievement Award. Jennifer has been working for the needs of adults with intellectual disability in the Trust since 1989.

Louise Payne, Senior Special School Nurse (Transitions), Park House Health and Social Care Centre won the Unsung Hero Award for a clinical setting. Louise is young person focused and does not limit herself to the immediate health needs of the individual but looks at the wider picture of how the young person fits into the family unit. She also advocates for the young person and listens and searches for services that meet their wants and needs.

There were two winners of the Unsung Hero Award for a non-clinical setting this year – Sheila Brownlow and Richard Seals.

Sheila is a Personal Assistant to the Director of a very small and diverse corporate team. She regularly supports the whole team in a variety of tasks which is above and beyond her job description. She has also, over the last 18 months, co-ordinated the external inspection and scrutiny visits of both Monitor and the CQC at a time of significant importance to the Trust, in the pursuit of FT Status, managing the pressure on herself and everyone else.

Richard Seals is a Peer Mentor from the Specialist Stammering Team, Sherwood Health Centre. Stammering affects one per cent of the population and can disadvantage people within their home lives as well as socially, educationally and in their employment. Richard has accessed therapy within the service, and has supported our work as chair for the self help group for people who stammer in Nottingham which has provided support for our clients once they leave therapy - and has actually supported care to be ended early with the service.

The winner of the Young Person's Award – which was added to the categories last year – was Sian Retter, Specialist Podiatrist, Park House Health and Social Care Centre. As well as taking part in service improvement projects with great enthusiasm, Sian has recently worked hard to develop her own ideas, engaging and leading other staff members and outside agencies to improve services.

The OSCARS is delivered with the financial support of sponsorship from a variety of public and private organisations.  The headline sponsor for the event is Konica Minolta, who supply the Trust's printing and copying machines.

Ruth Hawkins, Chief Executive of Nottinghamshire Healthcare said: “We were delighted to hold our annual OSCARS event to celebrate and reward our staff for their outstanding achievements. Many congratulations go to our winners.

“It was a wonderful night and I hope all the shortlisted teams and individuals enjoyed the opportunity to share their successes. Our very sincere thanks go to all the sponsors who made this event possible.

“We believe at times of public sector cut backs like this it is even more important to recognise and thank our staff and volunteers for the tremendous contribution they make. Their commitment and dedication is truly valued, as shown in the many nominations we received, and makes a real difference to everyone who uses our services.”