A sparkling evening of celebration for colleagues who go above and beyond

Partnership working between our Dental Service and other NHS providers in London created the Tooth Fairy Team and a new dental care pathway for children needing urgent treatment.

For the patient, the care was kept as familiar as possible in a local clinic with colleagues they had already met. Since the service started, 1,206 referrals have been received and 153 patients are waiting with 642 patients referred for GA. The Tooth Fairy Team has dedicated themselves to this project, meeting regularly, peer reviewing processes, brainstorming solutions and working flexible hours. All of this has resulted in a more patient-accessible service.

The team was nominated by:Marianne Hearsum, Strategic Director for Quality, Dental and Planned Care and Nicola Pearson, Clinical Director for Dental Services.

Runners-up: Special Schools Nursing Team and Urgent Treatment Centre and Minor Injury Unit Teams.

The shop provides a valuable service directly on Ashford High Street. This team has established themselves as part of Ashford town centre, building relationships with partners, community engagement and becoming a part of community events.

They work with community partners, including distributing food parcels with Fairshare, setting up a community café with the Probation Service, providing a space for One You Kent services to meet people and working with Ashford Borough Council to offer advice and guidance.

The team was nominated by: Mark Cummings, Head of Adult Health Improvement Service

Runners-up: Referral Unit Management Team and Continence, Diabetes, Lymphoedema and Epilepsy Admin Team.

Since the team was established in 2021, Claire and Dora have dedicated their time and energy to redefining the volunteer process, creating a training programme and celebrating the work and achievements of our volunteers.

They lead with compassion, empowering new and existing volunteers to get the most out of their role with confidence and supporting services and teams to unleash the power a volunteer can have to help them.

The team was nominated by: Emily Bradford, Participation Manager

Runners-up: IT Service Centre and Storage Management Team.

Zoe has been pivotal in creating a culture change in the team that is nurturing, kind and compassionate. She motivates and supports us, making sure we are happy and able to work at our best.

Being inclusive is important to Zoe and she works hard to build team morale and listen to everyone, going out of her way to create a happy environment. She sometimes doesn’t even realise how she is making someone’s day, as she is naturally a pleasure to work with.

Zoe was nominated by: Allison Leigh, Clinical Lead for School Nursing

Runners-up: Amanda Sutton, Assistant Practitioner and Pippa White, Head of Looked After Children, Community Paediatrics and Children’s Hearing Services.

Rafal’s caring manner, together with his professional approach, is a credit to One You Kent. His energy and enthusiasm for the team is a delight to see and his passion for his work comes through whenever he gets to talk about what the team does.

He empowers his colleagues and is always willing to listen, help and support anyone in his team. He strives to achieve and deliver more and more, creating momentum and encouraging his colleagues along the way.

Rafal was nominated by: Kimberley Lloyd, NHS Health Checks Programme Manager

Runners-up: Lisa Graham, One You Kent Central Advisory Team Supervisor and Samuel Edwards, Adult Health Improvement Co-ordinator.

Jan is one of those people who when the going is tough she is there, with enthusiasm and commitment to get things sorted. At the centre of her focus is the wellbeing of patients and colleagues and she strives to do the best she can for them.

Jan is highly dependable, trusted and extremely hard working. She certainly goes the extra mile, nothing is too small or too big for her to get involved with and help.

Jan was nominated by: Clive Tracey, Director of Specialist Services, Health, Safety and Emergency Planning

Runners-up: Emma Cadman, International Recruitment Pastoral Lead, and Sandra Lynch, Personal Assistant.

Under Amber’s guidance, the team has grown in size, with an increased range of services offered. She is a leader by example and takes challenges in her stride. At the heart of Amber’s drive is the children and young people the service supports, taking proactive actions to make sure the service is able to continue and grow.

Her personal dedication has been recognised by her teams, colleagues and commissioners alike, with her commitment credited as part of the reason why the service is as successful as it is. She is calm in a crisis and can always be relied upon to deliver solutions to a high standard.

Amber was nominated by: Anne Ford, Assistant Director of Prevention and Public Health and Jane Edwards, Clinical Lead for Counselling and Emotional Wellbeing

Runners-up: Panna Shah, Dentistry Consultant and Dover Community Nursing Leadership Team.

Kim makes time for people and puts them at ease no matter what the discussion. She doesn’t see job titles or bands, instead she approaches everyone as equals. She encourages everyone to bring their whole selves to work and has created a supporting and nurturing culture.

Kim would say she’s only as good as her team. She’s a great leader because she genuinely cares about her team and the success of every person in it.

Kimberley was nominated by: Samantha Scott, Health Checks Project Manager

Runners-up: Josslyn Knights, Administrator and Sarah Osborne, Administration Manager.

Marianne has been pivotal in setting up the tooth fairy programme, creating opportunities for children to receive dental care under general anaesthesia.

Marianne has led and supported her team to set up systems at short notice, making sure they can work flexibly to meet the diverse needs of patients, being innovative and finding solutions when problems were faced. Marianne has a can-do approach. She works in partnership, listens carefully and considers how she can best support the clinical teams to drive through change which will benefit patients. She has developed systems to deliver charts, which clearly monitor progress and service transformation.

Marianne was nominated by: Marianne Hearsum, Strategic Director for Quality, Dental and Planned Care

Runners-up: Clare Ward, Workforce and Electronic Staff Record Manager and Sam Leech, Strategic Business Manager.

Amy transitioned from an administration role to a clinical one as an assistant practitioner apprentice in 2021 and is a proactive, member of the School Health Team.

She strives to be an advocate for children, young people and their families by creating training for them, demonstrating her compassionate approach to making sure intervention is delivered in an informative and most importantly sensitive manner, which supports collaborative working and engagement with families.

Amy was nominated by: Helen Sharman, School Nurse

Runners-up: Nicola Coates, Intravenous Specialist Nurse and Philippa Ballerio, Specialist Respiratory Nurse.

Faye is a compassionate and responsive colleague who helps with the day-to-day management of the Continence Team and the Product Delivery Service. She is supportive of her colleagues and encourages them to develop, including supporting three team members with promotion opportunities.

Faye is a role model for others, going above and beyond to make sure colleagues are welcomed and supported. She is a hands-on line manager and whenever needed, will always roll up her sleeves and help the team with their tasks.

Faye was nominated by: Caroline Knott, Operational Manager for Continence, Epilepsy, Heart Failure and Lymphoedema

Runners-up: Adam Wilder, Business Transformation Officer and Zarin Tasneem, Administrator.

Tracy has worked for KCHFT for a number of years in education and development roles. Last summer, she was promoted to a role, focussing on the design and delivery of leadership and management training and corporate induction.

To make sure colleagues were supported with their learning and development, she went above and beyond to make sure there was continuity during a turbulent time of change and high vacancy rate in her team. Tracy had never delivered these particular subjects before, however this did not faze her.

She demonstrates the trust’s values on a daily basis and is enthusiastic, passionate, caring and always looking for ways to improve her service.

Tracy was nominated by: Samantha Clark, Head of Talent and Development

Runners-up: Amber Morris, Administrator and Kate Rumsby, Communications Officer.

After meeting during speech and language therapy as part of their stroke recovery, Derek and Tasha agreed to volunteer and help lead a group for other patients to join where they have space to talk to each other and improve their communication.

The group creates a safe space for the participants to share experiences, listen, empathise and give suggestions without judgement or embarrassment. They share their stories, laugh, offer advice, compassion and provide friendship and bonding as a group, empowering participants to move forward with their life.

Derek and Natasha were nominated by: Lucy MacKechnie, Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Runner-up: Kevin Salter, Tonbridge Cottage Hospital.

Steve is a key leader in patient-led HIV peer projects. He is always eager to share his valuable knowledge and ideas to support and improve KCHFT sexual health services.

Along with this, he is described as a one-man fundraising machine, taking on extreme running and cycling challenges to raise money for the i care HIV fund. Steve is a compassionate, aspirational and responsive campaigner and advocate for marginalised people. He is a true example of excellence in volunteering.

Steve was nominated by: Desre Bean-Engelbrecht, Trainee Project Support Manager

Runner-up: Anne Carroll.

Jemma led a quality improvement project, aiming to reduce health inequalities by working closely with the Roma community in Margate. She showed true dedication to breaking down barriers and creating a level playing field when accessing healthcare for this community.

Taking a creative approach, Jemma had spent time to create a trusting relationship with the community, before setting up drop-in sessions for families with interpreters on hand to offer support and translated resources. These sessions were a learning opportunity for Jemma to find out about barriers the Roma community has when accessing healthcare and she has become a trusted individual the community goes to for help and support.

Jemma was nominated by: Joline Healey, Quality Improvement Advisor

Runners-up: Chat Health Improvement Group and Helen Merrick, Health Inequalities and Partnerships Manager.

Caroline has worked to create positive wellbeing in the hospital with her teams. At her daily huddle, Caroline sets the day ahead, encouraging colleagues to think about how they can be patient-centred. She has created a way for colleagues to explain how they are feeling, creating a safe expression of emotion. She uses the huddle to offer support, share resources and signpost to services which can help a colleague feel better.

Ultimately, Caroline provides compassionate leadership, with a priority for colleague and patient wellbeing by creating a culture of safety, connectedness and promotion of the trust values.

Caroline was nominated by: John Stone, Health and Wellbeing Lead

Runners-up: Alison Worwood, Pharmacist and IT Projects and IT Applications Teams.

The KMCR and Rio Configuration Team is made up of IT analysts who design, maintain and provide support to clinical and admin staff for the electronic patient record, Rio. Rio is used by the largest number of users at KCHFT.

Always going the extra mile to offer technical support, the team works hard to support colleagues with their frustrations and help troubleshoot and solve problems experienced. They strive to do and be the best.

The team was nominated by: Habiba Rawoof, Service Lead, Yanani Yasotharan, IT Systems Analyst and Vinosh Mathew, IT Systems Analyst