Over 350 staff and guests attended this special red carpet Awards evening which took place on Friday 17th June at the city’s newly refurbished Rum Warehouse at the Titanic Hotel, Stanley Dock.

The ceremony was themed ‘A Night with the Stars’ in recognition of exceptional role that NHS staff have played in making Merseyside a fantastic place to live because of the care they provide.

The Trust provides a wide range of out-of-hospital community health services in Liverpool, Sefton and parts of Knowsley such as district nursing, walk-in centres, health visiting, school nursing, palliative care and a wide range of specialist community nursing and therapy teams that help patients to manage long-term conditions out of hospital, or get back on their feet after a period of illness.

Celebrations were led by BBC Radio Merseyside presenter Roger Phillips, and a total of 14 Awards presented during the night to exceptional NHS staff members, teams and services.

Amongst those recognised during the evening were the Community Occupational Therapy Team who were named ‘Team of the Year’ for their innovative work to reduce waiting list times for patients being referred into the service for assessment.

Other notable winners included The Social Inclusion Team who were recognised with the  ‘Award for Community’ for their successful engagement with BME communities to improve cancer screening attendance, and the Community HIV Team and Speech and Language Therapists who each won an award for ‘Creativity & Innovation’.

The School Nursing Service and Immunisation Teams were also big winners during the evening, scooping two awards for their successful delivery of the new nasal flu vaccination for all Years 1 & 2 students in primary schools across Liverpool and Sefton.

In addition, the Trust also honoured 14 members of staff with the Trust’s Long Service Award, recognising their dedication in providing over 40 years of service to the NHS.

Carole Panteli, Interim Director of Nursing commented on the Awards evening:

“The Staff Awards evening was all about celebrating the outstanding achievements of staff, and saying thank you to those who have gone above and beyond in their roles and made a real difference to their patients or colleagues.

“This year’s ceremony was themed ‘A Night with the Stars’ because the NHS is full of incredible nurses, doctors, therapists, health advisors and many other caring support staff, who rarely receive any special recognition for their work, but are true stars in their communities.

“A huge well done to all of our winners, runners up and to everyone who was nominated for an award this year.”

The full list of award winners from the night were as follows:

• Award for Care – Catherine Quinlan, Health Visitor

• Award for Community – Social Inclusion Team

• Award for Courage – Lisa Beckitt-Quinn and Nerys Edwards, Safeguarding Team

• Award for Collaboration & Integration – School Nursing Service

• Award for Commitment – Immunisation Team

• Learner of the Year – Specialist Palliative Care Team

• Award for Creativity and Innovation – Jess Page and Liz Munro, Speech & Language Therapists / Specialist Community HIV Team (joint winners)

• Employee of the Year – Rachel Robinson, Corporate Services

• Leader of the Year – Surinder Goyal, Care Manager for South Sefton

• Chair’s Award for Health and Well-being – Healthy and Safety Team / Communications Team (joint winners)

• Volunteer of the Year – Liveability Volunteers

• Award for Equality and Diversity – Bed Based Intermediate Care Wards 9, 11, and 35

• Award for Quality – Continence Promotion Team / Liverpool Anticoagulation Service (joint winners)

• Team of the Year – Community Occupational Therapy Team