Health and Care Champions are celebrated at Greater Manchester awards night

Eleven individuals and teams have been recognised and rewarded for the outstanding contribution they make to the health and well-being of our communities.

The Greater Manchester Health and Care Champion Awards 2019 took place on Thursday 4th July at Manchester’s Museum of Science & Industry.

Nearly 250 guests heard about the tremendous work of over 30 shortlisted candidates who every day make a huge difference and impact on the organisations they work for, the people they work with and the patients they serve.

Practice Nurse, Janine Hussey, was crowned the People’s Champion after being nominated by multiple patients. Janine is not only a dedicated and inspiring Practice Nurse, she actively supports her local food bank and trains nurses from another practice on her days off.

Janine has established great links with the local LGBT community and has been known to help her patients with shopping and cooking during her home visits.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, was present to hand out his Mayor’s Special Recognition Award.

This year it was awarded to Faye Larkin who sadly died at the end of 2018. Faye’s Mum, Trish Larkin, accepted the award on her daughter’s behalf.

Faye worked with clinicians and commissioners to help establish a Borderline Personality Strategy across Greater Manchester. She also used her own first-hand experience to design a questionnaire for A&E departments.

These ‘iStatements’ have really helped improve how our urgent care colleagues review and look after patients with mental health issues.

Andy presented the award for Faye Larkin to her mother Trish. She was joined on stage by Faye’s brothers Sean, Paul and Adam, and Sean’s wife Suzy and Paul’s wife Abi.

Trish said afterwards, “This is Faye’s award. It was her hard work and we are very proud to receive it on her behalf. Her purpose was to be recognised as a human being, not as a mental health patient.”

Brothers Sean, Paul and Adam said they were proud of their sister. Adam said, “She didn’t like the stigma around mental health.

Faye knew she was more than a statistic. She spoke from the heart about her experience and the suggestions she made have been taken up and led to positive change.”

Chloe Johnson was recognised as our Rising Star after bringing her personal experience of being a care leaver in to the work she does as Apprentice Outreach Development Worker at Rochdale Borough Council.

Emma Dickenson was handed the Collaboration Award for her work as a Control Room Triage Operations Manager, bringing together staff and expertise from three NHS Trusts and Greater Manchester Police to improve the response vulnerable people receive from health, care and police providers.

Over a dozen unwaged also carers took to the stage to highlight the contributions they make. There are over 280,000 unwaged carers across Greater Manchester.

Their work makes a significant contribution to our region, to improving the wellbeing of the people they care for and to reducing the demand on a range of services. 

The event was hosted by Tony Walsh, one of the UK’s most renowned poets.

Tony delighted the audience with his own poem called Today We’ve Learned and entertained attendees who included nominees, their nominators, friends and family and health and care leaders from across the region.

The event was kindly supported by Gold Sponsors: Health Innovation Manchester and Novartis; along with category sponsors including Centrica, GB Training, GE Healthcare Partners, Hempsons, PA Consulting, the Greater Manchester Health & Social Care Partnership and all four Greater Manchester Universities.

The award winners had been shortlisted from a total of nearly 400 nominations from across the NHS and other sectors including a school, local authorities, charities and care homes. Shortlisting was done by a panel of representatives from across our public services with patient representatives.

The final judging panel included the Mayor and senior leaders from health and social care organisations across Greater Manchester.

Jon Rouse, Chief Officer, Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership said,

“So many people representing all kinds of occupations and sectors came together at our award night and really recognised and celebrated each other’s work.

It was simply wonderful to hear how all of our shortlisted candidates have impacted on the lives of so many people right across Greater Manchester. I think we all felt incredibly proud.” 

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham said, “It is incredibly important that we run awards like these tonight. Being able to recognise and celebrate the outstanding breadth and diversity of our workforce is something we should really do every day.

Whether you work in a care home, hospital, an office, voluntary organisation, out in the community or you’re a carer at home, you are making a positive contribution. I am so proud of what everyone nominated has done.”

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