Published on: 9 October 2024
Colleagues from a workforce training team at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust are celebrating after being announced as the winner of a Healthcare People Management Association’s (HPMA) Excellence in People Award. 
The Icare (Increase confidence, attract, retain, educate) Programme team took home the accolade in recognition of their work supporting the emotional, educational and wellbeing needs of newly employed healthcare support workers (HCSWs), providing innovative training opportunities.
The award celebrates the very best teams, professionals and projects working in workforce, organisational development and HR in healthcare.
The team were particularly celebrated for combining both pastoral support and training on key topics relevant to the role of HCSWs in delivering safe and effective care in mental health services.
The team have gone above and beyond to showcase improvements made, and to highlight the value of HCSWs across the Trust in the hope that they will retain this staff group through supporting their career development and making these opportunities accessible. As a result, the programme has generated significant positive feedback, with 62.75% strongly agreeing that the framework has a positive impact on their confidence and a remaining 37.5% also agreeing.
Rebecca Oakley, Director of People, Organisational Development and Inclusion, said: “What a fantastic achievement this is for our Icare programme team. The team have worked exceptionally hard to support our workforce of HCSWs to thrive in their respective areas and patients will now be able to reap the rewards through improved care.
“The programme is still very much in its infancy and yet a lot has been achieved in a short space of time, so I look forward to seeing more success from the team as they grow and develop.”
Nick Holburn, Healthcare Support Worker Development Lead at Derbyshire Healthcare said: “This news has been extremely exciting for the team. The Icare programme has really flourished since its launch and we continue to receive fantastic feedback from clinical support staff through who have completed the programme; in particular, they have commented on how valued they now feel working for Derbyshire Healthcare.
“The team are dedicated and determined to continue developing and learning from this staff group and hope to see more success moving forward.”
