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Posted on 7 Jul 2021

The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care System (ICS) Mass Vaccination Team has been shortlisted for 'The University of Bradford Award for Cross Sector Working’ in the Healthcare People Management Association (HPMA) Excellence in People Awards.

The awards recognise and celebrate the work of Human Resources, Occupational Development and workforce professionals across the UK. Showcasing the profession as the cornerstone of the supportive and empowering cultures we need as we move from the management of the pandemic to the recovery of our people and our services.

The vaccination programme in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire was a complete system response, involving the acute providers, community teams, commissioners, local authorities, volunteers and general practice – all pulling together in the same direction to protect residents from Covid-19.  Given the pace and scale of the required roll-out, individual organisations needed to take the lead on different elements of the programme and work seamlessly together in delivery. 

Key amongst those partnership activities was the recruitment and deployment of frontline staff to the vaccination centres.   

Sherwood Forest Hospitals volunteered to be the lead employer for the COVID-19 vaccination programme and collaborated with partners across the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICS to recruit, train and then successfully deploy a skilled workforce of registered and non-registered professionals to administer the COVID-19 vaccine across 10 different locations. The team has recruited more than 5,000 colleagues to administer a COVID-19 vaccine and is the largest scale programme across the Midlands region.

Working collaboratively across the whole ICS, the Mass Vaccination Team have played a key role in the success of the programme and have been vital in the most important public health interventions of all time, protecting Nottingham and Nottinghamshire colleagues, partners and community.

Commenting on the nomination, Chief Executive for Sherwood Forest Hospitals, Richard Mitchell said: “The vaccination effort across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire has been a real team effort across the whole NHS and I am so proud that we have been shortlisted for this award, which recognises the achievement across the whole system. This project has been life changing for everyone who has worked on it and also for those people who can be protected by the vaccine.”

Dr John Brewin, Chief Executive, Nottinghamshire Healthcare added: “I am so proud that our organisation has been part of this fantastic piece of work, which has demonstrated how well we work across the system and what we can achieve together.  This has been a hugely important project that has helped to protect both our workforce and our community.”

Chief Executive of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Tracy Taylor, said: “Our region’s Mass Vaccination Team has been a shining example of staff and public volunteers coming together in an organisationally agnostic way with a common goal of keeping our communities safe. We are all incredibly grateful to everyone involved for their tireless work and dedication.”

Accountable Office for NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire CCG, Amanda Sullivan, added: “The key to delivering great health and care services to our population is for NHS organisation and Local Authorities to work together, irrespective of organisational boundaries. The vaccination programme in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire is a great example of this with different organisations taking the lead on different areas of the work – be it estates, pharmacy, communications, operations or inequalities. The work that Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has led for in terms of securing the frontline workforce for the vaccination programme is one great example of this – well done to them for this nomination and I wish them best of luck.”

Winners will be announced at a ceremony on 7 October.

A full list of the HPMA Excellence in People Awards 2021 finalists can be found at https://www.hpma.org.uk/hpma-awards-2021/