Barry Seecoy – Unsung Hero Awards

Nomination

Award Category:

Estates & Ancillary

Individual or Team Nomination?

Individual

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 am a member of the Smoke Free team at the South London and Maudsley mental health trust. Back in March, the trust has its annual Sustainability Day. As part of this, i wanted to take on a project highlighting the impact of cigarette butts on the environment. I felt this was important because: - Smoking rates amongst mental health patients are significantly higher than the national average in the general population - Cigarette butts are the world's leading plastic polluter (4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year) - Organisations (including hospital trusts) have increasing environmental commitments - Environment issues were a new angle for us to motivate both staff and patient smokers to quit, aside from the traditional motivations of health/money. - "Planet Care" is promoted by SLaM and MIND as a way of maintaining good mental health As we are a no smoking site, patient and staff smokers vacate the premises if they wish to smoke. This leaves smokers congregating at the front gate which dents our smoke free image, leaves the pavements littered with cigarette butts and creates an unpleasant working environment for security staff. I approached our gate security team to ask if they would like to support us in the project. Seecoy - known as "Barry" - was immediately keen to help. I would like to nominate Barry for the Unsung Hero award because: - he took on the project as though it was his own - he displayed our resources in the windows of the security hut and signposted both staff and patient smokers to read them. When realising this visual aid wasn't effective enough, he took the initiative to suggest we supply him with smaller print outs which he then handed out to all smokers. These resources detailed facts about the damage cigarette butts have on wildlife, countryside and our oceans/beaches - as part of the project, the Smoke Free team obtained pocket ashtrays (a small smell and fire proof pouch which disposes of cigarette butts in an environmentally friendly manner) - Barry ensured that every staff member was allocated a pocket ashtray and reminded them to bring it each time they came out to smoke. When supplies ran low, he was very efficient in asking for more - Barry actively promoted our "Put it Out, Pick it Up, Put it in a Bin" slogan to all patients - Barry has continued to promote the cause long after the Sustainability Day; he has sent over 7 staff smokers for smoking cessation support, most of these have been estates and ISS staff that we wouldn't typically reach in our standard email communications or meet on the wards - In order to make our hospital entrance look cleaner and to prevent dropped cigarette butts leaching into the environment, Barry acquired a device to collect dropped cigarette butts and he continues to clear these daily The project was a great success for the Smoke Free team but Barry was without doubt the key player who made it so - he's been a brilliant friend to our team and gone way beyond his standard security role!