Public health teams from across local Councils, together with Champs Public Health Collaborative and Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership, have been recognised for their achievements and performance in a series of national awards.
In the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) Awards, an annual celebration offering recognition of the dedication, innovation and talent of the local government workforce, numerous Cheshire and Merseyside Councils have been shortlisted across three awards.
In the LGC’s Campaign of the Year category, St Helens Council has been shortlisted for its communications campaign work.
The Collaborative’s Spread the Facts campaign, which aims to Spread the Facts about COVID-19 across Cheshire and Merseyside, including how it’s spread, how to stay protected and what the rules are, has also been nominated.
St Helens Council has been recognised for its St Helens Together community response to COVID-19 campaign, which brought together residents, businesses, public sector partners and voluntary and community groups, working together to provide food, medicine, supplies, emotional support and practical help to those most in need.
Award entries will be judged on the quality of the campaign, including design, format, delivery and evaluation; the impact of the campaign and the extent to which it achieved the Council’s objectives; and how the campaign contributed to the Council’s wider objectives and strategy.
In the LGC’s Public Health category, Halton Borough Council has been shortlisted, being recognised for making the most of its role in public health.
Award entries will be judged on the boldness and vision behind the Council’s strategies; evidence showing the Council’s work is having an impact on broader population health or on specific public health objectives; the extent to which the Council have implemented evidence-based solutions to public health problems; how cross-departmental and partnership working is having an impact; and how the Council is overcoming barriers to implementation.
In the LGC’s Council of the Year category, Cheshire West and Chester Council has been shortlisted, being recognised for demonstrating underlying sustained strong performance, innovation and excellent leadership across the broad spectrum of its work.
The winner of the Council of the Year category will be chosen on the basis of the delivery of strong outcomes, the quality of the Council’s community leadership, and the evidence that the Council is doing the best for its area, all in response to the specific challenge the Council has faced both with regards to COVID-19 and other areas of its work.
The LGC Awards are due to be held on 4th November 2021.
In the Health Service Journal (HSJ) Awards, which recognises healthcare service excellence in the UK, Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership has been shortlisted in three award categories.
The first is in the Connecting Services and Information Award for the Partnership’s Combined Intelligence for Population Health Action (CIPHA) project, which provides an integrated and shared intelligence base to support partners across the region when managing COVID-19 outbreaks.
The second shortlist for the Partnership is in the Health and Local Government Partnership Award for the Cheshire and Merseyside Social Value Partnership, which aims to embed Social Value at scale within health organisations and Local Authorities across the subregion.
The third shortlist for the Partnership is in the NHS Communications Initiative of the Year Award is the ‘Getting under the skin – The impact of COVID-19 on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities’ project, which was included funding and input from PHE and the Collaborative and aimed to understand how these communities were impacted by the pandemic in particular, which ultimately led to a specific, targeted campaign to increase vaccine take-up.
NHS Cheshire CCG has also been shortlisted for the NHS Communications Initiative of the Year Award in relation to its work with local partners to ‘Spread the Vaccine, Not the Virus’. The nomination reflects the work undertaken to create ‘network of networks’ which continues to increase vaccine confidence amongst marginalised, vulnerable and vaccine hesitant communities in Cheshire. By working in a truly joined up way across the NHS, Public Health and Community Sector, communications, engagement and equality leads and have come together in a way that will leave a lasting legacy for system working and for the benefit of population health.
The HSJ Awards are due to be held on 18th November 2021.