Thank You Event 2022: Project of the Year Award- Winner

Every year we celebrate our amazing staff and their achievements at our pop-up Thank You ceremony. Board members will pop into video meetings to surprise colleagues and present them with a hamper for being shining examples of our magnificent staff behaviours.

The LCH NHS Your Health and Wellbeing: Caring for Each Other, a closed Facebook group run by Emma Coupland, Chris Farquhar, Grace Stewart-Hanson, and Karen Lai, is our project of the year.

Project of the Year – Winner

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the need to support staff health and wellbeing and enabling interaction became even greater and a staff Facebook group was developed. 'LCH NHS Your Health and Wellbeing: Caring for Each Other' is a closed group available exclusively to LCH staff. The group was launched in January 2021, and through various methods of promotion, membership has steadily increased to over 600 staff members.

The purpose of the group is to share health and wellbeing resources, promote Trust initiatives such as the Winter Arts for Wellbeing event, and be a forum for colleagues to connect and support each other. The group has successfully fostered a friendly, inclusive community feel where people are free to contribute their ideas and experiences.

The small team of staff volunteers who manage the page, Emma Coupland, Chris Farquhar, Grace Stewart-Hanson, and Karen Lai, do a fantastic job of keeping it running, organising regular engaging activities to enable staff to join in and have some fun. These have included a virtual bake-off competition, a Halloween decoration competition and a pet mascot competition. An LCH netball team is also being set up as a result of posts within the group!

Business Manager, Lyndsay Hamilton nominated the Facebook group saying, “The ongoing achievement of this group should be celebrated and supported, to enable this positive forum to continue to flourish.”

Feedback about the group from members via an anonymous survey included:

• “I have connected with so many colleagues on this group who I would never have previously met or spoken to…it’s brilliant!”

• “It is nice to have a platform away from work to talk open and honest about life.”

• “It is a really positive way to interact with colleagues with non-work related activities – which builds relationships across the trust in a more relaxed and healthy forum!”

Thea Stein, Chief Executive, and Bryan Machin, Executive Director of Finance and Resources, surprised the group to thank them for their fantastic efforts, collaboration and engagement. Thea said “It was a brilliant development and a brilliant project. So many people have been involved and given up their time over and above, they just got involved and have done something good for so many other people.”

On behalf of the team, Emma said, “Gosh what a lovely surprise! I feel really emotional, thank you, it’s so exciting - what a lovely start to the day.”