NHS staff invited to recognise outstanding leaders
The South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health and learning disability services to the people of Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield, is encouraging its staff to nominate a colleague for one of the most prestigious awards in the country.
Anyone working for, or on behalf of, the NHS in England is eligible to nominate and be nominated for the NHS Leadership Awards, which are designed to recognise and reward examples of outstanding leadership at all levels of the NHS.
People who use services and their carers are also encouraged to suggest a member of staff they think should be nominated for this recognition.
The awards aim to champion strong and creative leadership focused on improving quality for patients at the same time as being an opportunity to celebrate outstanding leaders working at every level in the NHS across England and help foster the leaders of the future from all backgrounds.
Nominations are peer-to-peer and for individuals only, except for the NHS Partnership of the Year and NHS Board of the Year, which are for teams and organisations. There are nine award categories including Leader of the Year, Innovator of the Year and the Award for Aspiration.
A distinguished panel of judges has been assembled and includes highly experienced health professionals including the chief executive of the Care Quality Commission Cynthia Bower, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh the NHS Medical Director at the Department of Health and Dr Peter Carter OBE, chief executive & general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
The South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s director of human resources and workforce development Alan Davis said, "We fully recognise the importance that leadership has in providing services of a consistently high quality. As such, our Trust, on behalf of NHS Yorkshire and the Humber, is leading a new research project that looks at the link between staff wellbeing, leadership and quality of care.
"We have some fantastic examples of leadership in our Trust. I would encourage our staff to nominate themselves and each other for these leadership awards and would also like people who use our services and their carers to let staff know of anyone they believe show exceptional leadership in providing care."
By encouraging staff to enter these national awards, the Trust is building on its own staff awards scheme, Excellence. The Trust’s first Excellence awards held last autumn saw 200 staff gather to recognise 14 award winners from a range of services and professions. The Trust is looking forward to holding the Excellence 2010 awards later this year. By entering the national leadership awards staff are able to have their good practice recognised even further afield.
Nominations for the national leadership awards close on 28 May 2010 and the awards ceremony will take place in October this year.
More information and nomination forms are available online at www.nhsleadershipawards.nhs.uk