HCRG Care Group

💙 Celebrating colleagues who make a lasting difference. Here are the last two winners from our Difference Awards.

🏆 Penny Crowley from BSW Community Health received our Outstanding Contribution Award, recognising years of dedication, leadership and commitment to improving services for patients and colleagues.

🏆 Alison Blakeley from Sexual Health Services received our People's Choice Award, voted for by colleagues across HCRG Care Group in recognition of the impact she makes every day.

Both awards celebrate something incredibly important: the people who leave a lasting impression through kindness, commitment and the difference they make to others.

Congratulations to Penny and Alison. 👏

Fantastic news for our Children's Audiology Service in Bath, delivered by Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Community Health🎉

The team has successfully retained its nationally recognised IQIPS accreditation, demonstrating continued excellence in care for children, young people and families across Bath and North East Somerset.

A huge thank you to all colleagues whose dedication and commitment help deliver high-quality, family-centred care every day.

💙 Well done to the team!

This year's Difference Awards celebrated leadership at every stage and recognised two colleagues who are making a real difference through the way they support others.

🏆 Tiff Ferris from Wiltshire Children’s Services received our Inspire Award for her exceptional leadership, compassion and integrity, helping colleagues feel valued, empowered and supported to grow.

🏆 Emma Budgell from BSW Community Health received our Rising Star Award after making an exceptional impact early in her community nursing career through her commitment to patient-centred care and collaborative working.

Congratulations to both colleagues and thank you for the difference you make every day. 👏

Today we’re celebrating two of the teams recognised at this year’s Difference Awards. 👏

🏆 West Lancashire Urgent Care Team received our Working Together Award for its longstanding partnership with Edge Hill University which has created valuable opportunities for future doctors while strengthening knowledge-sharing and supporting healthcare in the local community.

🏆 Surrey West Children’s Community Nursing won our Team Award. The team provides a 24-hour service delivering complex and palliative care to children and young people at home, giving families more choice and support at some incredibly difficult times.

Their nominations highlighted not only what these teams achieve, but the way they work with others to achieve it.

Congratulations to everyone involved.

We’re continuing our celebration of this year’s Difference Award winners with two colleagues whose work has helped make care better and safer.

⭐ Jennifer Higgins from Essex won our Innovation Award after looking closely at patient pathways, listening to families and redesigning how support was provided – helping reduce waiting times so children could get the right support more quickly.

⭐ Louise Robinson from Surrey & MSK received our Chief Nursing Officer Award for improvements including evidence-based guidance, medicines safety and safer clinical processes.

Congratulations to Jennifer and Louise, and to the colleagues who have helped turn those improvements into everyday practice.

Two of this year’s Difference Award winners were recognised for something at the heart of good care: taking the time to understand what someone needs.

🏆 Lara Simoes, from Surrey & MSK, received our Patient Impact Award after helping a vulnerable patient overcome barriers to accessing life-saving treatment.

🏆 Helen Slocombe, from BSW, received our Heart Award for the kindness and compassion she brings to patients and families facing some of life’s most difficult moments.

Helen was also recognised for sharing her knowledge with colleagues so they feel more confident having those difficult conversations themselves.

Congratulations Larissa and Helen – two examples of the difference our colleagues make every day. ❤️

There are so many brilliant things happening across HCRG Care Group services every day – and we want to share more of them.

Our Difference Awards celebrate colleagues and teams whose work has made a real impact for patients and families, for services and for the people they work alongside.

This year’s awards include everything from helping a vulnerable patient access life-saving treatment and reducing waiting times for children and families, to improving medicines safety and providing complex and palliative care to children at home.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be introducing some of this year’s winners and sharing the stories behind their awards.

A huge congratulations to everyone who was nominated, shortlisted or won an award!

In May, Jackie Roberts and Ryan Woodfine from Essex Child & Family Wellbeing Services (West) attended a Community in Practice Event at the Limes Centre (True Stars) in Chigwell.

With a wide range of partner organisations in attendance, the event offered excellent networking opportunities with organisations like Fellas Forum in support of the Engaging Fathers Project, as well as meaningful conversations with young people about volunteering within the service.

In Lancashire, our Improving 0-5 Immunisations Uptake Team held a stall at Burnley Campus Health Mela as part of the National Forum for Health and Wellbeing (NFHW) Silver Jubilee, which was also attended by the Mayor of Burnley and included guest speakers.

This is part of a 2-year project, commissioned by NHS England and hosted by Lancashire CHIS to empower parents/carers to make informed decisions about vaccinating their 0-5yr olds in Lancashire (incl Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen).

The team are attending numerous health events to engage with local communities, providing information and support in the area. These have been held in some great venues, including Mosques, Churches, Family Hubs, Community Centres, University buildings and even a Job Centre.

Recently our healthy weight team from Essex were invited along to Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food networking event to meet some of the other community partners with one shared mission: to inspire and empower more people to enjoy the benefits of cooking and eating nutritious, sustainable and balanced meals!

The day was spent at Jamie HQ in London to listen to some inspirational updates, hear about the incredible work others are doing in their local communities, share learning and to get motivated for the year ahead- not forgetting a delicious lunch!

🥝The biggest take away from the day is that Ministry of food classes is more than just cooking. Classes bring people and families together, they nourish, educate, and teach new skills for life by supporting those who take part. We are very excited by this new partnership and being able to offer Ministry of Food classes to some of our families.