ICT Management – Unsung Hero Awards

Nomination

Award Category:

IT & Digital

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 work for the ICT department, and have done for 7 years now. In 2020, just before the outbreak of Covid in the UK, our department started the process of a massive restructure. Despite these life-changing (for some) differences, and complete top-down leadership change, a huge reduction in the number of staff in the department, and a mind-set shift in the way of working, Mark and his Team have transformed the department of ICT and digital infrastructure more than I think any of us ever realised before would be possible. The entire team were so upbeat about the developments that could and would happen at GOSH that as a department, it was impossible not to be influenced by their enthusiasm. They have (as per CIO Blog attached), completely changed the entire ethos of the department, being eager to improve everything from Cyber Security to Service Delivery, Relationships with Customers, and internally implementing a people charter to improve the working environment for all staff. The amount of training, development and job opportunities have improved vastly since their starting within the trust, including all members of the department being trained in ITIL principles. Most of the leaders within the department have also had the opportunity to undertake GOSH's TIME leadership training course which has improved the general leadership throughout the department. The team are consistently available for any discussions that the rest of the department want to have, reaching out to organise team events, encouraging the development for Wellness Champions, Mental Health First Aiders, general First Aiders, the sustainability surrounding ICT, and many more. They have also made sure that there is an ability for staff to ask regular questions at monthly townhall meetings which have improved the open conversations between the leadership team and staff, and also the mental health of the staff for whom they lead. The entire team, driven by Mark has been consistently complemented by both the CEO of GOSH, and the non-executive directors, and staff throughout the trust. There has also been improvement in the consistency and level of work done, and the ethos of expectation of exceptional service has spread throughout the department with this team's guidance. The Team: Trevor Witcher - Service Delivery - massive improvement to Service Delivery, including reduction in time to answer calls, respond to e-mails, implement an escalation process, and also implement an ICT Call Logging System (Hornbill). Sally Holman - ICT Development - implementation of ICT Business Partner's team, improvement of the finance and contracts management. Anthony Harper - Applications and Data - started the job without an applications team, now has an applications directory and a team who can now develop apps. Ian Roe - Infrastructure - redevelopment of the team, and transition to up-to-date servers, PCs and infrastructure within the trust. Harps Shina - Cyber & Networks - from zero to hero - implementation of a service which was under-developed prior. Alongside this exceptional leadership, Mark also trains and competes regularly in his preferred sport, Taekwondo, and often inspires others with his tales from the DoJang.