Some of the county council's most dedicated and committed employees have been recognised in the third annual Excellence Awards.
Cumbria County Council's internal awards ceremony was held on Friday night, January 18, at Carlisle Racecourse and recognises employees and teams that go the extra mile in delivering county council services.
Winners from around the county received Bronze, Silver or Gold awards after being nominated by their colleagues and the public. The winners were chosen by an independent panel of judges.
County Council chief executive Peter Stybelski, who hosted the black tie event, said:
"The Excellence Awards help build pride in the council and in Cumbria. They're a celebration of all the hard work that goes into delivering council services and recognise the dedication of our workforce. Our organisation is growing better and stronger thanks to the people who work here. We're an organisation that is proud to invest in its people."
Cllr Jack Richardson, Cabinet member responsible for human resources and organisational development, said:
"All the winners should be proud of what they've achieved. Unfortunately we can't recognise everyone at the county council and the judging panel had an incredibly tough job whittling down the list of nominees to the eventual winners."
The full list of winners are:
Team of the year 2007
Gold –Penrith Library
Silver –Fostering Service, Children’s Services
Bronze –Family Roadshow Team, Children’s Services
Employee of the year 2007
Gold award -Sheila Raine, Appleby Primary School, Client Services
Silver award - Lynsey McVay, Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service, Workington
Bronze award - Bridget Sanderson, Strategy & Performance
Excellent Customer Service 2007
Gold –Client Services Premises, East
Silver –Richmond Park, Residential Home
Bronze –P.A.V.E., Mill Lane Day Services
Manager of the year 2007
Gold –Susan Oliver, Superintendent Registrar
Silver –Sue Bowman, Adult Social Care
Equality and Diversity award 2007
Gold –Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service, Workington
Silver –Disability Information Team, Children’s Services
Bronze –Care Sector Alliance Cumbria / Adult Education Service
Backroom Brilliance 2007
Gold –Mary-Lou Miller, Children’s Services
Silver –Allan Haile, Gillian Elliot and Julie Crellin, Economy, Culture & Environment
Bronze –Treasury Management Section, Finance & Central Services
Joint Working/partnership 2007
Gold –Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service, Craig Drinkald & Tony Paterson
Silver –Investors in People Champions Group
Bronze –North Cumbria Mental Health Supported Employment Service
Chairman’s Award 2007
Gold –The Dragonfly Drama Group, Penrith & Eden Day Services
ENDS
Media enquiries to Gareth Cosslett, News Manager on 01228 606332
Notes
Pictures of award winners are available on request.
Background information on winners:
Team of the Year 2007
- Penrith Library: Over the past year the Penrith library team has undertaken major projects to redesign, modernise and improve the library. This was a self-motivated project which involved consulting and listening to library users in order to achieve the redesign.
- Fostering Service, Children’s Services: At any one time, there are almost 470 children in Cumbria who are unable to live with their families. Most of these are placed with foster carers. As well as identifying and recruiting suitable foster carers, the Fostering Service provides ongoing support to foster carers. The Cumbria Fostering Service has won recognition from OFSTED for improvements to the service and an improved performance rating.
- Family Roadshow Team, Children’s Services: The team carried out a series of roadshows throughout 2007 to help promote their services to children, families and the childcare workforce. It organised a county fun day to celebrate the work of Cumbria Sure Start children’s centres for National Sure Start month.
Employee of the year 2007
- Sheila Raine, Team Leader, Appleby Primary School: Sheila has worked in the kitchens of Appleby Primary School for eight years. As well as making up to 280 healthy lunches a day for the children, she also provides a meals on wheels service to the elderly. Her nomination also came with many testimonials from the children at the school. One read "I like Mrs Raine because she looks pretty, she makes yummy, scrummy food, and she gives up her time to teach us all netball".
- Lynsey McVay, Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service: Lynsey has been based at Workington Fire Station since 2000, where she works as a crew manager for Blue Watch. Her colleagues nominated her for the energy, involvement and sheer enthusiasm she puts into her work.
- Bridget Sanderson, Communications and Information Team: Bridget joined the council in July 2006 as a Pathfinders modern apprentice trainee. As a result of her successful year as a modern apprentice, in July 2007 she was offered a fixed-term full-time contract as Communication and Information Administrative Assistant. Colleagues have been full of praise saying: "Nothing is ever to much bother for Bridget. We talk a lot about identifying and nurturing talent, and in Bridget we have unearthed a rising star".
Excellent Customer Service 2007
- Client Services Premises Unit, East: Winners of the bronze award last year, the Premises Unit from Skirsgill stepped up to gold this year after an award-winning effort in producing high quality meals. The job demands individual skills and commitment, with customers ranging from children aged between 0-18 years and older people from 60-100 years. That's not to mention head teachers, school governors and parents, Police Authority and all county council personnel, departments and units. Account manager Shirley Pattinson had a special reason to be there - her menu won the 'recipe for excellence' competition which was open to all premises unit foodservice employees throughout Cumbria. Entrants were challenged to produce a celebratory menu of a main course and pudding for the Excellence Awards evening using local produce. Her winning menu was dollywagon chicken with Wainright rice and a selection of four puddings.
- Richmond Park, Workington: The care home provides accommodation and care for up to 29 older people, many of whom have dementia or physical frailty. The staff show great dedication and teamwork in responding to the operational needs of other homes by covering shifts to ensure a quality service is maintained. Last February the home was assessed by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) as providing Excellent Service, the first Cumbria Care Residential Home to do so.
- PAVE, 'Positive and Valued Experiences', Mill Lane Day Services: Mill Lane Day Services in Barrow supports around 130 people with a learning disability. As a result of feedback from a customer satisfaction survey in 2006, a proposal to develop a new dispersed day service was agreed by senior managers from Cumbria Care. PAVE opened for business in September 2006 following refurbishment by service users and staff and currently supports around 25 people who use the service on a full and part-time basis.
Manager of the Year (new category for 2007)
- Susan Oliver, Superintendent Registrar: The Superintendent Registrar from Kendal is described by her colleagues as being conscientious, inspirational, talented, dynamic and fun. She keeps her team fully informed of everything that is going on and shows a personal and professional interest in them all.
- Sue Bowman, Adult Social Care: The Area Manager for Carlisle Adults Team is known by her colleagues as ‘Sue-perwoman'. She is highly regarded by all her team members, colleagues from other agencies and most of all by clients and carers.
Equality and Diversity award 2007
- Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service, Workington: Cumbria Fire and Rescue service has been transformed in recent years as it developed its ways of working though an Integrated Risk Management Plan, which helps the service understand the community it serves and deploy its resources accordingly. The result is a fire service which is much better able to recognise and respond to the needs of many different communities whether they are young or old, living with a disability, from minority ethnic groups, or deprived areas.
- Disability Information Team, Children's Services: Tina Hugo and Jennie Taylor have been responsible for putting together a database and the 4Us Newsletter aimed at children and young people with disabilities. It provides information to children and young people who have a disability, their families and carers and also any professionals working in the field. The team have also built the Record 4U database, which registers children and young people with disabilities so that correct services can be planned around them.
- Care Sector Alliance Cumbria / Adult Education Service: In Cumbria, recruitment into the care sector can be problematic. This team has successfully recruited care providers from abroad and also helped integrate them into communities with advice on local culture and language skills. During 2006/7 Care Sector Alliance brought together the County Council’s Adult Education Service, employers and care staff to design and pilot an English for Speakers of other Languages communications programme, contextualised for care. The results were outstanding with pilot participants citing improved skills and confidence together with improved rapport with clients, colleagues and neighbours.
Backroom Brilliance 2007
- Mary-Lou Miller, Children’s Services: Mary-Lou took on the huge job of building, implementing and maintaining new and existing IT systems which could report on all requirements of the service. Recently CAPITA have shown interest in one of the implementations Mary-Lou has made and are looking to use her work as a national case study. This same module also received recognition in a recent Ofsted evaluation.
- Allan Haile, Gillian Elliot and Julie Crellin, Economy, Culture & Environment: This team is responsible for acting as the accountable body for £220m of North West Development Agency investment into Cumbria. The oversee the allocation of grants and have also managed to negotiate the recovery of costs from the NWDA - securing an annual saving for the council of around £900,000.
- Treasury Management Section: In 2007 the team saved the council £4.7m, with ongoing savings of £1m a year, thanks to its debt restructuring programme.
Joint Working/partnership 2007
- Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service (Craig Drinkald and Tony Paterson): The fire and rescue service in Carlisle and Eden have made a quantum leap in youth engagement and partnership working. This has culminated in a recent six-day course at Carlisle run by Craig Drinkald and Tony Paterson for youths identified by the Youth Offending Team and Police Problem Solving Constables.
- Investors in People Champions Group: The group was set up in 2002/3 to promote the Investors in People standard as good management practice. It is made up of 10 staff from across all directorates and helped the council to successfully retain its Investor in People status for a further three years in July 2007.
- North Cumbria Mental Health Supported Employment Service: This project has been designed for adults with severe and enduring mental health problems and shows that helping people find a job is the best way to improve their lives and help their recovery from severe and enduring mental illness. It has involved close collaboration between Cumbria Care and Making Space, an independent charitable trust, along with other agencies. Between March 06 and March 07 the scheme resulted in 41 people in north Cumbria finding sustainable employment.
Chairman’s Award 2007
Every year the County Council Chairman can nominate any county council-related project or employee for a special award recognising an exceptional contribution. This year Cllr Alan Toole chose The Dragonfly Drama Group, which was set up in partnership with Penrith and Eden Day Services and Quondam Arts Theatre. The project gives people with learning disabilities the chance to achieve a wide variety of life skills through theatre and drama - from performing to stage setting to advertising and promotion.