Northumbria Healthcare celebrates Community Promise’s birthday with top award
A health trust’s social value programme has landed an international prize for its ‘bold and innovative’ approach.
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust was awarded champion status – the highest available – for its Community Promise at the International Social Responsibility Excellence Awards in London.
It comes as the organisation marks five years since the pledge was launched in Berwick in June 2021, when it committed to focus on all the ways it can improve people’s lives and to maximise its impact.
Since the launch, plenty of progress has been made against the five key pillars: Economy, Education, Employment, Environment and Inequalities.
The award citation said that the Community Promise ‘is one of the most ambitious, comprehensive and impactful social value programmes in the UK public sector’.
It added that it ‘represents a bold and innovative reimagining of what an NHS organisation can contribute to the community it serves’ and a ‘fully embedded organisational commitment that drives measurable social, economic, and environmental value across Northumberland and North Tyneside’.
Dr Birju Bartoli, chief executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We know that the health and well-being of our communities is based on a wide range of factors.
“We also know that our privileged position, as both a local employer and healthcare provider for our communities, means we have a responsibility to look at all the ways we can make a difference to the people we serve.
“To receive this champion award as we mark five years since we launched Our Community Promise is fantastic recognition of the hard work of all involved and the positive impact we are having in Northumberland, North Tyneside and beyond.”