Sandra Phelps – 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 :

Sandra Phelps started working for Northumbria Healthcare as a volunteer sewing machinist in the middle of the pandemic (May 2020) when we had an urgent need to create PPE for frontline staff due to the national supply chain issues. Sandra showed great dedication, passion and willingness to help, along with her fantastic sewing skills, and as such was recruited on a permanent contract. Since then, Sandra has become an integral part of the production team. She organises events for staff well-being and to raise money for charity, such as events for the Queen’s Jubilee, King’s Coronation, Easter, Christmas, Macmillan Coffee mornings, NHS’s 75th birthday, National Healthcare Estates and Facilities day and other fund-raising events. She organises raffles and weekly meat & veg draws supporting local suppliers to raise money to fund the events as well as contributing her own money and time. She decorates the work area for each event, writes quizzes, organises games, prizes, and fancy-dress competitions. She makes sure that everyone from the team is involved in one way or another and no one is left out. Sandra’s efforts improve staff morale as everyone looks forward to the events and this improves motivation and productivity on both the production line and within the wider team. Sandra is very passionate about supporting people into employment. She volunteers to be a mentor for students from a local special needs school who come in once a week to gain work experience. She has taught them many skills and always treats them with the utmost respect and kindness, helping them to develop. Sandra gets lovely feedback from the school, students, and their parents about the impact she has made on them. Sandra also volunteered to support our Find your Future Career’s Event and promoted careers in sewing to school children and the general public by demonstrating her skills and talking to them about what is involved. Part of Sandra’s role is to support clinical staff with measuring their uniforms and making alterations, so the staff feel comfortable when they are performing their clinical duties. This in turn creates a positive impact on patient care. Sandra is so friendly, cheerful, and fun loving and we can always hear laughter when she is around. Sandra is a true unsung hero and the trust is really proud, grateful and fortunate to have her as a member of the team, so much so we feel she deserves to be recognised on a national scale.