This award is an opportunity for patients, families, visitors and Trust colleagues to say ‘thank you – you made a difference’ to a member of staff or a team for anything (however small!) that helped make their experience of our services better.

The winners for August are:

The Norfolk 3 ½ year school readiness project team: Sally Crane (Health Visitor), Marie Balfour (Team Leader City Locality), Penny Bland (School Nurse), Lisa Emerson (Team Leader West Locality), Wendy Housden (Nursery Nurse), Caroline Page (Nursery Nurse), Natasha Townsend (Nursery Nurse) and Sharon Youngs (School Nurse) 

The team were nominated by Amy Edwards, Service Redesign Delivery Manager, for working together with our partners Iceni Healthcare Ltd to introduce a new universal school readiness check for 3½ year olds into the Norfolk Healthy Child Programme. This new check will be an additional opportunity for children and their families to discuss their child’s health and access support for any concerns ahead of the child beginning school.  

In Norfolk, school readiness is a particular issue with the county only achieving 45.6% of children assessed as being school ready, significantly below the England average of 51.7%, because of this, improved school readiness is a key outcome of the healthy child programme.

Whilst the checks will be carried out by practice nurses across GP surgeries in Norfolk, a group of our staff (comprising of nursery nurses, school nurses and health visitors) answered an email asking for volunteers to support with the implementation of this service. 

They have all given up hours of time to help: 

• design the checklist and information leaflets – holding focus groups with parents to gather their feedback
• design a training package for Practice Nurses, including writing case studies and exercises
• create a reference pack for each nurse
• and delivered training for approximately 120 nurses across Norfolk.  For which they received fantastic evaluations.

This work has been on top of their already busy clinical commitments and has meant them all travelling across the county to support the work.  They have been fantastic representatives for the Trust and for the Norfolk Healthy Child Programme. Without their professionalism, enthusiasm and commitment the team would not have been able to achieve so much in the last few months.

Congratulations to the team!

Also nominated this month:

Linda Baulk, Administrative Assistant, 0-19 School Nursing, East Cambs

Linda was nominated by Kim Chenery for being strategic in organising the Soham Health Centre move to the new Bluebell Centre.  Linda has taken the lead on the weekly conference calls and has been the lynch pin in the smooth transition of the move.

She has been the “go to” person for all support services i.e. IT, estates and contractors. She has coordinated services not only for the Healthy Child Programme but also for other allied health professionals. She also came in while on holiday to supervise the actual move day.

Staff have fed back that she has been amazing with the support and problem solving regarding the move. 

Diana Freer, Breast Feeding Support Worker, Luton

Diana was nominated by Tina Ashby for doing her utmost to support mothers to breast feed their babies so they get the best start possible and improve their health outcomes. She empowers mothers to give them confidence to continue. Many mothers have fed back about her 'care' and support and one mother came especially to the office to deliver some chocolates and a 2 page letter saying: “Without your help I am certain I would not be breast feeding my baby 6 months on and for that I cannot thank you enough. I will never forget what you have helped me to achieve. You called or visited me nearly every other day and you had so much patience with me and left me feeling reassured after every visit.”

Support is about enabling those in your care to continue with confidence when you aren't there, not just being there for them, which is what Diana does every day in her work.

Nicola Daniels, Administrator- St Neots - Dumbelton

Nicola was nominated by Rachel Greaves for being a real star. She helped Rachel with all aspects of SystmOne and helped her to run the allocations meetings. She always went over and above to be supportive with any question or problem. Nicola was a fantastic person to work with and was always cheerful and asks about her colleagues. She is a valued member of the team and has worked extremely hard in the health visitor move into Dumbelton Medical Centre.

Marion Eaton, Luton Palliative Care Support Team , Lead Palliative Care, Luton Palliative Care Service

Marion was nominated by Lynn Pantling along with and her Palliative Care Support Workers Kathy Field, Fran Cleary and Sheila Murphy-Nunn for supporting the District Nursing team with three particularly complex and challenging patients who were experiencing crises at end of life.

Marion did this with her usual calming and supportive nature and was always available either in person or on the end of the telephone. One patient in particular required urgent respite care and this was arranged by Marion at very short notice on a Friday afternoon. She pulled out all the stops and went more than the ‘extra mile’ to support the District Nurses and the patient to ensure smooth transition to respite care. Marion’s tenacity, determination and drive to ensure that she delivers high quality, compassionate care to her patients and their loved ones is inspiring and she is a wonderful role model – all delivered with her friendly, approachable and cheerful manner.

I have also witnessed first hand the work of the Palliative Care Support Workers, Kathy Field, Fran Cleary and Sheila Murphy-Nunn and believe that their role is invaluable in supporting Marion to provide this care. They work under extremely difficult circumstances at times but this is always done with genuine care and compassion. It is an honour to work with such wonderful and amazing people.

Congratulations to everyone nominated this mont