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.

Our Winner for February 2021 is:

Nicky Kimberley, SCPHN School Nurse, 0-19 Healthy Child Programme, South Locality 

Nicky was nominated by Tracey Bingham after receiving some outstanding feedback from one of the families she cares for. The nomination said: “My daughter suffers with some mental health issues and I was nervous at first as these things are never easy to talk about and as a parent it’s quite daunting when you realise you need outside help to properly care for your own child. 

“My nerves were soon put to rest as Nicky was lovely, friendly, honest, understanding and full of advice and ideas that I hadn’t even considered myself. My daughter opened up with her sessions with Nicky and always seemed more positive after they had a meeting. She struggles talking about her feelings but said she didn’t once feel uncomfortable discussing things with Nicky. 

“My daughter’s mental health deteriorated quickly in the second lockdown and in a sheer panic I emailed Nicky for advice. Nicky called me within eight minutes with an understanding ear and with no doubt on the advice she was providing. I followed her advice and took my daughter to hospital. I can’t even bring myself to imagine what would have happened had Nicky not called that day but I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to state that she could have easily saved my daughter’s life that day with her advice. She also managed to help me calm down so I could appropriately support my daughter rather than being an emotional state myself. 

“Nicky kept in touch with us and supported us throughout an extremely challenging time right up until our referral was accepted by CAMH. She ensured we were ok, provided advice and information on where else we could obtain help and support and ensured we were aware of what we could expect from each part of our journey up to the acceptance of our referral. 

“I honestly can’t thank her and this service enough and it scares me to think where we could be without it. Thank you Nicky you will be missed.”

Amazing feedback Nicky, well done!


Other nominations this month included:

Oral Health Promotion teams - Dental, Service Wide (Alison Bishop, Nicola Jeffrey, Mahbuba Chowdhury, Katie Bannister, Sara Jackson, Rachel Keith, Sylvia Low, Emma McCulloch, Phillipa Davies, Terry Whyman, Sarah Kilby, Nicola Rice, Esther Coggins, Claire Davies and Brenda Burrows).

Nicola Hall nominated the team for their part in the Oral Health Digital Offer.  The project was launched in response to Covid as the team were no longer able to provide Oral Health Promotion and training face to face. Nicola said: “The project team, led by Alison Bishop (SRD) and Nicola Jeffrey (Service Manager) developed an online digital training package to provide up to date training and information for clinical and clinical support staff in HCP, staff in education settings to support the My Smile scheme and updated online information and resources. 

“The team worked collaboratively across Beds, Cambs and Suffolk, pulling on their wide range of knowledge and skills to develop the digital training packages. The team worked hard in particularly challenging times as they recognised the importance of maintaining the Oral Health Promotion service to support our communities. The first online training session was delivered to nearly 100 HCP staff in January. 

“Going forward, this change in practice will reduce staff mileage and enable the Oral Health promotion team to reach a wider audience more easily.” 

Josephine Bennett, At Home First Co-ordinator – Luton

Josephine was nominated by Jenna Maclaren who had been dealing with an unwell asthmatic patient who has been frequently exacerbating and requiring steroids every month. The patient had no heating in her house which was likely a big driver to her poor condition. 

Jenna said: “As many people are aware asthma can be fatal, and the environment has a huge impact on symptoms (proven in a recent case where pollution was attributed to a child with asthma's death). The patient had tried to get her heating fixed but was told she would have to wait due to Covid. I had tried to contact the housing association as well as other housing teams and after multiple attempts and constantly being passed on to someone else, put on hold or cut off, I had no one to escalate to. 

“I have worked with Josephine for some time now and I am well aware of how brilliant she is at her job so asked her to help me. This patient was not hers and was not even known to home first so she got involved and went above and beyond purely to support me. Within 24 hours, Josephine had managed to organise replacement heating for the patient. 

“I am so grateful to Josephine and proud to call her my colleague. At a time of great uncertainty in the NHS, we need more people like her.”

Nina Fruscher, Clinical Nurse Manager - iCaSH, Vancouver House, Kings Lynn, Norfolk

Julie Moses nominated Nina as not only is she totally amazing at her job managing their team, she is also the loveliest human being. Julie said: “During the pandemic Nina has been totally unflappable, supportive and super caring. I have had some real ups and downs in the last 18 months; My Mum passed away 18 months ago and my Dad only 4 weeks ago. Nina has been great team manager. She is always understanding and empathetic and truly deserves recognition for how she manages her team and for her human spirit. She treats everyone fairly and with kindness and respect. Long may she reign!”

Nancy Packham, Mandatory Training & OLM Administrator, Training and Education team, St Ives

Nancy was nominated by Niamh Robinson and Julia Michael who said: “We know that all staff within CCS have been under considerable pressure since the onset of the COVID Pandemic, but we would like to recognise the commitment we have experienced from Nancy who we feel is the glue that keeps us together and is a star in her own right. 

“The work load has increased significantly, having to re-adapt our face to face training delivery, build new training packages on ESR, so that there is a smooth transfer of competencies, in order that staff have access to the new modules without too much disruption, and at the same time respond to all the new staff members who needed the additional support to complete their training to allow them to work within the PODS. 

“An additional pressure was that we also had a member of our team leave, which yet again increased the workload across the team. Nancy has stepped up to taking on the additional responsibility without any complaint, and has taken it upon herself to work additional hours including working weekends so that we were able to ensure that staff were supported whilst they attended face to face ILS training for staff who were unable to attend a session during the week for the vaccination programme. She also took the initiative to source us external training venues to run these sessions, as we have been losing our current facilities due to them being converted into a local vaccination centre. 

“She always remains positive and upbeat, and her willingness to help shines through even whilst she has mounting pressures and additional stress from the current situation in work.”

Hannah Lovell, Special Needs School Nurse, Children and Young People (CYPs) - Luton

Sally Archer nominated Hannah for always going the extra mile in the care of children with SEND in the Woodlands Secondary School. Sally said: “She cares deeply about their welfare and always strives to ensure that they have the best care possible. She has forged excellent relationships with education staff at the school and is instrumental in training them to care for all the CYPs medical needs. She always takes a holistic view of the CYP and considers the wider impacts of their health needs.”

The head teacher’s feedback said: "Hannah is highly professional and works well as part of the Woodlands team. She is friendly and approachable and has a good knowledge of the children and their special needs. The whole team, led by Hannah, are keen to participate when required in Annual Reviews to update the Health Sections of the EHCP. Hannah understands the importance of information sharing to safeguard children and she will always follow up concerns raised by the family workers and the pastoral team. She is a great point of reference when we are trying to understand some of our more complex cases and she is always solution focused. 

“The whole nursing team are a joy to work with as they embrace the ethos and values of the school and make a positive contribution to the school community.” 

Sally continued: “Hannah is also always proactive in developing new training packages - both for nursing and education staff and suggesting and implementing improved ways of working. She is part of the backbone of the nursing team in Special Needs Schools and is an inspiration in the way she cares for CYP with SEND and their families.”

Our wonderful staff going above and beyond - well done to everyone who was nominated this month!