Newcastle Hospitals has been announced as the deserving winner of the Best Workplace for Learning and Development category Sponsored by OET at the Nursing Times Workforce Summit & Awards 2022.
On Tuesday 22 November, Nursing Times brought together over 700 professionals from across the health and care community at the Hilton London Metropole.
Finalists and members of the nursing community attended a glittering awards ceremony covering 17 categories recognising organisations going above and beyond to recruit and retain their nursing workforce. There were deserving winners from organisations across the UK.
Following a rigorous judging process, Newcastle Hospitals and NHS Arden and Gem CSU emerged as the winner of Best Workplace for Learning and Development category for their creation and delivery of an innovative Leadership Development Programme called “Maximising Your Potential”.
The collaborative initiative was led by the Newcastle Hospitals alongside NHS Arden and Gem CSU and delivered to over 50 members of staff who identified as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic.
The programme was designed to provide support and training for staff who would benefit from developing their skills further with the aim of creating a fair and equitable high-performance culture, and received overwhelmingly positive feedback with several participants successfully achieving promotions following completion.
Of their Award win Karen Pearce, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (People) at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals and Usman Malik, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at NHS Arden and GEM CSU said: “We are delighted to have received this recognition from Nursing Times.
“The collaboration between Newcastle Hospitals and NHS Arden and Gem CSU delivered a bespoke leadership development programme to equip staff with the tools needed to develop leadership skills, shared learning but also allowed a ‘safe space’ for authentic conversations about lived experience.
“With a growing and increased awareness around the challenges of under-representation the programme was both welcomed and supported at Newcastle Hospitals but of significance the collaboration has created a blue print that can be replicated across the NHS.
“Maximising your potential in Newcastle Hospitals has the long-term ambition of supporting the creation of an organisation that is vibrant and diverse at all levels, with better representation at all leadership levels and we are delighted the work we’ve undertaken has been recognised.“
You can read more about this shortlisting here
“Worthy winners”
The judges praised the team citing them as “Worthy winners” and said that the approach was brave, challenging the norm with traditional medical models.
This is really innovative. This entry has replicable learning for other services and provides hope for those service users with protected characteristics.
Nursing Times Workforce Awards Judges
“Whilst the impact is for a small group, the reach of this project is potentially global and is backed up with strong data.
“There is good evidence of partnership working and collaboration across organisations.
The judges continued “This entry is inspirational and they have challenged the traditional nursing boundaries and the difference that they can make to patient’s needs.
“Reflecting the fact that this category was for the best Workplace it enthused the panel and demonstrates a workforce that is truly putting the patients at the heart of what they do and this made us want to work with them!”
Shining a light on those that go the extra mile
Editor of Nursing Times and the host of the awards, Steve Ford said:
“I want to congratulate all the winners across our 17 categories at the Nursing Times Workforce Awards 2022, now in their fifth year.
“Our awards highlight nursing’s workforce achievements and some of the brilliant work being carried out during what continues to be an incredibly difficult period, due to enduring staff shortages, the aftermath of the pandemic and the approach of winter
“Once again, we have shone a light on those organisations and individuals that go the extra mile when trying to attract new nursing staff and, just as importantly, celebrated efforts to retain staff.”
