North West Surrey Alliance shortlisted for the 2023 HSJ Awards | News centre

North West Surrey Alliance shortlisted for the 2023 HSJ Awards – setting the highest standard of integrated care

Local health, care and wellbeing staff have been recognised for the impact of their work by being shortlisted for the latest in a series of prestigious national awards.

North West Surrey Health and Care Alliance is a finalist in the ‘Best Place-based Partnership and Integrated Care Award’ category at the HSJ Awards, recognising an outstanding contribution to healthcare and securing a place at the awards ceremony later this year.

This follows news in recent months that the Alliance were shortlisted for a HSJ patient safety award and nominated by a local MP for a NHS Parliamentary award for their integrated frailty service.

A ‘record-breaking’ 1456 entries have been received for this year’s HSJ Awards, with 223 projects and individuals reaching the final shortlist, making it the biggest awards programme in the award’s 43-year history.

The high volume - and exceptional quality – of applications once again mirrors the impressive levels of innovation and care continually being developed within the UK’s healthcare networks.

Following the thorough judging process, North West Surrey Alliance was shortlisted, with its work to reduce health inequalities, support the most vulnerable people and shift focus to prevention and integrated support standing out as a real ‘success story’ worthy of a prized place on the panel’s shortlist.

One of the most mature place-based partnerships in the country, North West Surrey Alliance formally unites 11 healthcare, local government and voluntary sector organisations impacting the health, wellbeing and happiness of our communities in Woking, Runnymede, Elmbridge and Spelthorne.

The Alliance determines how over £400m of resources is used and through a team of over 5,000 staff have achieved significant successes over the past year to support the health and wellbeing of local people, including:

• Overhauling community services – increasing capacity by 20%, trebling utilisation of Urgent Community Response services – learn more in this short film
• Supporting more people to stay well in the community and avoid unnecessary time in hospital through 15 dedicated step-down housing units – find out more in this film
• Quadrupling investment in preventative services – over 50 community projects live in key communities with demonstrable outcomes.
• Deployed Tribe platform across highest deprivation communities – 200+ weekly citizen searches, linking to 360+ community groups/activities to improve health/wellbeing. Tribe allows volunteers to become micro-enterprise carers creating 60+ new care businesses.
• Repositioned £3m investment with Borough Councils to support prevention - funding a Women’s Support Centre for domestic violence victims, threatened with closure. 20 safe housing units developed, accommodating 100+ people with complex needs.
• Quicker access to cancer care using new technology and artificial intelligence at our dermatology photohub – watch this film to find out more.

Jack Wagstaff, Chief Officer of North West Surrey Alliance, said:

This really is such exciting news! Being shortlisted for a HSJ Award will be a huge boost for our dedicated and hard working team, especially in a year when the competition was so tough.

Whatever the result ‘on the night’, we already feel like winners for getting this far and are so proud to have the opportunity to share our success with colleagues from across the entire sector, as well as showcasing everything we’ve learnt by working together to implement our transformation work.

 

HSJ editor Alastair McLellan, adds;

It always gives me great pleasure to congratulate our finalists at this stage of the judging process and this year is no exception. As ever, the calibre of entries left our panel of expert judges with some tough decisions to deliberate over.

However, it’s always important to remember that the HSJ Awards are not just a celebration of success stories but also a platform to shape the future of the NHS and its partners.

 

The selected winners will be announced during the awards ceremony at Evolution London on 16 November 2023. The event will not only reflect the HSJ Awards’ enduring ethos of “sharing best practice, improving patient outcomes and innovating drivers of better service” but will also serve as a timely and well-deserved thank you to the sector during the 75th anniversary year of the NHS.

The 2023 awards judging panel was once again made up of a diverse range of highly influential and respected figures within the healthcare community, including; Crystal Oldman, Chief Executive, Queen’s Nursing Institute; Dr Habib Naqvi MBE, Chief Executive, NHS Race and Health Observatory; Anne-Marie Vine-Lott, Director of Health, Vodafone; Sir Jim Mackey, National Director of Elective Recovery, NHS England, as well as a range of esteemed Chief Executives from NHS Trusts across the UK.

The full list of nominees for the 2023 HSJ awards can be found on the HSJ website, alongside details of the Awards partners.