Marketing and communications – Unsung Hero Awards

Nomination

Award Category:

Corporate Services

Individual or Team Nomination?

Team

Qualifying Qualities

In these challenging times, nominators were asked to show how the nominee had demonstrated the following qualities:

Exceptional work ethic - going above and beyond their job description, especially in the past 12 months.
Outstanding achievement/s in work or outside of the organisation where relevant.
Drive for innovation and proactive leadership in these challenging times.
High level of interpersonal skills, such as kindness, empathy, loyalty and thoughtfulness to staff and patients.
A resilience considering Covid to their role and to the health and wellbeing of their colleagues.

Nominators Answer

Nominee's story :

I would like to nominate my communications team for their outstanding response to the coronavirus pandemic. From the outset the team adapted, were flexible, and supported each other and other colleagues through what was a difficult and at times stressful situation. The team quickly adopted a 7 day working week so that key messages and communication channels could be delivered throughout the week, including at weekends. As well as continuing all our existing comms channels the team developed new ones, including a daily coronavirus briefing for all news, national developments and Trust information; and a weekly huddle with our Chief Executive, organised and facilitated by the comms team. In addition the team led on the development of a dedicated coronavirus intranet resource, which included guidance, resources for staff and service users, information on wellbeing support, FAQs, and vaccine and testing info. The team ensured that all coronavirus information was in one place, easily accessible and could be relied on to be up to date and factual. The team also developed posters for internal and external use, leaflets, and guides; working closely with clinical colleagues to ensure accuracy and usefulness. This was all in our own branding so that staff could recognise that it was developed locally and would reflect what we needed staff and service users to know about. Information was also developed in easy read format so that our learning disability colleagues could use them and ensure understanding in their services. These were shared across the region and adapted by other partners who adapted what we did. The sheer amount of resources that were developed, without complaint or issue, is a testament to the positive attitude of the team – nothing was too much trouble. The team also worked on developing an online wellbeing portal for service users and the public, providing advice and resources for people to access to help with their mental health and wellbeing. We developed one for adults and one for children and young people. These went down very well, and were shared by partners across our patch who were able to use what we had developed to boost their own wellbeing offer. In addition the team developed an innovative ‘Choose Well for Mental Health’ resource which is one of the first nationally to focus solely on mental health and wellbeing. The response to this was astounding, and it has been shared extensively as a model of good practice and a guide that other areas want to follow. The team also organised the comms for the staff vaccination programme, using insight and live data to adapt our approach and ensure comms were delivered in a sensitive, personal way. This has helped us to achieve 88% staff vaccinations so far. The feedback from the Trust for the team has been fantastic. They are recognised as being a trusted voice, who can be relied on to be factual and correct. The impact on the Trustwide coronavirus response cannot be underestimated. They have truly been stars, deserving of recognition.