Nottinghamshire County Council staff have been recognised for going above and beyond their normal duties during the pandemic.

The Adult Social Care and Public Health Staff Awards for Nottinghamshire County Council were presented to winners and runners-up by Committee chairman Coun Tony Harper to:

Partnership working

Winner: Lucy Fox

Lucy played a fundamental role within the Personal Protective Equipment team which was a system-wide response to ensure that PPE was allocated to the right people in the right place at the right time from the start of the pandemic. She worked longer hours and at weekends and bank holidays, kept up to date on changes to the PPE advice and helped staff interpret it. She spent a lot of time talking to people to keep them up to date on their order and managing their concerns and anxieties. Lucy was always keen to ensure that the service users of our PPE were supported and, on many occasions, contacted them directly, reminding them when their weekly orders were due and even putting orders through for them if they just didn’t have the time.

Her role involved working with people across the organisation, provider partners, health and suppliers. Lucy remained calm and focused in what was a very stressful time for all within social care and Public Health.

1st runner-up: Rebecca Atchinson and Mawa Sall

2nd runner-up: James Wheat

Excellence in Adult Social Care

Winner: Sandra Devlin

Sandra is currently acting up as team manager for the Rushcliffe Ageing Well Team. She has supported the team through a restructure, providing updates and reassurance, as well as supporting them through the challenges of dealing with a pandemic. This has seen her initiating and responding to new processes and requirements in a positive and flexible way in such an uncertain time.

She is extremely compassionate and dedicated and approachable, not only with service users but with the team she leads, both professionally and personally. She fully understands how to get the best from people. She is always there with a listening ear to the team and will fully support everyone to achieve the best results for service users and their families. She is fully reliable as a person and totally committed to her role. She goes over the extra mile for everyone and will often be working until late in the evenings and on her days off.

1st runner-up: reablement service
2nd runner-up: Claire Atkinson

Excellence in Public Health

Winner: Public Health Intelligence Team

The small team of analysts collate and present information which informs the work of the daily outbreak cell, action planning by incident management teams and provides the basis for briefings to members, partners, media and residents. They work over and above their normal duties and often late into the evenings and at weekends.

The excellence of their work is acknowledged beyond the local system. Director of Public Health, Jonathan Gribbin attended a key meeting in October in which he presented work that Public Health intelligence colleagues had produced earlier that day. England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam commented that it was the best analysis of the local epidemiology that he had seen anywhere.

Runner-up: Geoff Hamilton

Working creatively

Winner: Provider services

In March, the teams continued to provide services even when buildings were ‘closed’ and providing services become far more challenging with a national lockdown put in place just weeks later. Through outreach, colleagues have delivered arts, crafts and planting materials and have set guidance for individuals to undertake this activity in their own homes and gardens. Specific topics have been highlighted and competitions have been popular with people sending in photographs of their work which they have been able to see displayed on a virtual wall. Working creatively, colleagues have supported people to take part in group activities using technology. Teams have created quizzes based on people’s preferences e.g. Olympics, sports, cars which have helped people to keep in touch with their friends. Shared Lives created a ‘happy’ film showing their thanks for carers during the pandemic.

Staff who could no longer work in day services were redeployed into other front line services, including START(reablement) and residential services. The Short Breaks service switched from a complex needs learning disability respite service to supporting people who were COVID positive on discharge from hospital. Shared Livers carers increased their offer and supported on a more full time basis.

Bishops Court Care and Support Centre, which was a completely empty building due to close, was mobilised and set up as a care home able to take COVID positive people who were discharged from hospital. Manager Ginny Bullock, who was due to retire, stayed on to complete this project.

1st runner-up: John Draycott

2nd runner-up: Veronica Thomson

Coun Tony Harper, chair of Adult Social Care and Health Committee, said: “I felt incredibly moved when I read through the nominations for the awards to hear all the fantastic ways that people have been going above and beyond their normal duties to make a difference for local people. Congratulations to the winners and runners up, but also thank you to all the staff who have contributed during these unprecedented times.

“Although there is good news with a vaccine on the way, our staff still have a huge role to play in the continued pandemic response in Nottinghamshire, as well as ensuring there is a smooth transition to a post-COVID way of working.”

Melanie Brooks, corporate director for Adult Social Care and Health, added: “I’m immensely proud of the way our teams have worked tirelessly to keep people safe, support people out of hospital and continue to deliver our vital services throughout all the challenges that the pandemic has thrown at them. The awards give us the opportunity to say thank you to some of those staff, but I’d like to pay tribute to everyone who has played their part.”

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