NLC Award for Public Services Shortlist
We are delighted to share the shortlisted entries, the winner will be announced on 29th January 2020 at the National Leadership Forum.
2020 is the first year of the NLC Award for Public Services, and we are delighted to share the shortlisted entries. This award recognises the success of teams who are working across systems to tackle public service challenges in a complex environment. It is for a cross-sector team who have shown how collaboration across systems has delivered demonstrable improvements in outcomes for citizens.
In assessing the nominations we looked for:
- Collaboration
- Innovation
- Inclusivity
- Demonstrable outcomes for citizens
- Pride in public service.
We will be announcing the winner from this shortlisted list at the National Leadership Forum on 29th January 2020.
The Veterans Passport
In Stepping Hill Hospital, part of Stockport NHS Trust, the Veterans Passport project was created when staff recognised that veterans were struggling to access services. The experience of repeatedly telling their stories to different staff within the hospital required them to relieve traumatic experiences. This meant that veterans felt excluded from services, not able to access support offered by the hospital. Showing great empathy and finding a smart, simple solution, Stepping Hill introduced a very simple paper ‘passport’ that veterans could use to communicate their stories, without needing to explain themselves each time. Other local services, such as housing and the police, have been brought on board and recognise what the passport means if shown by a veteran.
The project started following feedback from a patient and armed forces veteran named Dan. He highlighted that in any hospital or GP visit, a number of questions, (often the same question from different people), about his history are asked. He found this information difficult and distressing to recall. Dan wanted a small handbook to provide his history and information in written format, to reduce his need to repeat his story to different healthcare professionals.
With Dan’s help the Veterans passport to health and social care was developed. The veteran can now hand this in to the healthcare professional before the appointment, so that the veteran’s key information is already known before the consultation.
At one recent event, a veteran said that the passport had become “his voice, to say what I can’t say”, a really touching and proud moment.
The hospital has also added a veteran question to nursing documentation, and they capture this information with a poppy symbol on the hospital electronic in – patient recording system. They engaged with community colleagues in GP surgeries, District Nursing teams and local police to ensure consistency of approach and care for veterans.
One Rochdale Health and Care
One Rochdale Health and Care was created to bring health and community services together, to better serve local citizens, and to reduce demand on services. The One Rochdale Board brought together leaders from hospitals, local authorities, care providers and the voluntary sector to radically integrate care services and empower citizens in choosing how their services are delivered. Their new model allows citizens to decide their priority areas of care and has created local multi-skilled teams in these areas. This system change has led to a host of improvements in health and care services, including a reduction in the time spent in hospital and the introduction of new community services that support in emergencies and those with respiratory illnesses.
As an illustration of what this means on the ground, the One Rochdale Health and Care integrated intermediate tier services now include a Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale emergency assessment and treatment (HEAT) team, made up of nurse practitioners and ambulance staff, who are taking the pressure off other services. The ‘HEAT car’ responds to some of the lower level calls from ambulance services, aiming to avoid a trip to hospital and instead care for people at home with community support in place as needed. Within six months, the HEAT team deflected 86% of their calls away from hospital transfer.
Their neighbourhood teams have been designed to help maintain independence at home through both planned and urgent care, with integrated, multidisciplinary core teams supported by specialist teams. They also work with a wide range of partners.
Through such developments, they have seen some impressive improvements. They have halved intermediate care length of stay by changing the delivery model and supporting self-care and community resilience. The lengths of hospital stay and delayed transfers of care are reduced and they are turning the curve compared with other areas and are managing the growth in A&E attendances.
Lincoln City Centre Homelessness Project
Seeing a rise in the numbers of people experiencing homelessness, begging and consuming substances, in the city centre, the local business and agencies collaborated to address the barriers to support that these people were facing.
They addressed the issue by going to the heart of the problem and commissioning a specialist team through a partnership of different services.
City of Lincoln Council led a bid for access to the Home Office Prevention Fund and secured £377k, primarily to provide:
- A Rough Sleeper Co-Ordinator and 2 specialist Housing Options Officers
- An additional Outreach Worker and a specialist Addiction and Mental Health Worker to work alongside the Outreach Team
- Additional funding for the YMCA to extend the opening hours of the night-shelter
- Recommissioning of a building project for rough sleepers with complex needs
- Dedicated Police Team of a Sergeant and five officers dedicated to managing the City centre.
Together they formed the Lincoln Intervention Team and every time one of the vulnerable individuals identified interacted with one of the services, they were able to connect them to the other services. The Lincoln Intervention Team worked in collaboration with a taskforce of partners who developed a register of vulnerable individuals in order to manage their cases. Working together ensured that vulnerable individuals did not slip through the net, resulting in better outcomes for the individuals and a safer and better managed city centre.
Child Friendly Leeds
Child Friendly Leeds is a project run by the local authority with support from across the public sector; schools, libraries, cultural institutions, universities. It has ambitious goals; reducing child poverty, reducing the number of young people not in education or training, and improving achievement at school. Engaging over 900 ambassadors for the project, Leeds has offered new opportunities and experiences to children, young-people and families, that wouldn’t have been available otherwise. In 2017 Leeds launched a competition for under 18s to suggest ways to make Leeds city centre more child friendly. Of 350 entries, ten winners were chosen and a project board established to work with city centre partners on developing the winning ideas.
Projects included:
- A Harry Potter exhibition, and film screening with a live orchestra;
- Roller discos
- Indoor play sessions in shopping centres and pop-up parks across the city centre
- A children’s festival – Child Friendly Leeds Live, featuring stars from CBeebies
- Free activities offered throughout the summer holidays on Child Friendly Leeds Sundays
- Free short film screenings in Millennium Square
- Development of a new all-day county-wide bus ticket for young people
- Development of a Child Friendly Leeds City Centre Map
The delivery of this project was hosted, facilitated and supported by a wide range of partners. These included: Leeds Library and the British Library; Leeds First Direct Arena; Leeds Kirkgate Market; Leeds Play Network; SCRAP (Scrap Creative Reuse Play and Learning); St John’s shopping centre; Trinity Shopping Centre; Leeds City Council City Centre Management; The Rainbow Factory; The Tetley art gallery; Leeds City Museum; Herd Farm; The Light shopping centre; Leeds Town Hall; Leeds Art Gallery; the Junk Playspace; Fuel for School; Marks and Spencer; Leeds Young Films; John Lewis, Harvey Nichols and West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
In 2018, the range of activities in the summer attracted over 6,000 children and young people, having a transformational impact on the city centre.
