The response to this year’s Our Health Heroes Awards has been nothing short of extraordinary. Our inbox has been flooded, and we want to ensure that every deserving individual and organisation gets the chance to participate.

In the spirit of inclusivity and to accommodate the overwhelming interest, we’ve made a special decision: we are extending the nominations deadline to 19 December!

Your support and enthusiasm is the driving force behind the success of the Our Health Heroes Awards, which are all about giving you the chance to celebrate a friend, family member, colleague or caregiver that is making a massive contribution to the healthcare sector.

This extended deadline means that we are still open to nominations across our 11 categories

• Apprentice of the Year
• Best Healthcare Initiative in a Justice Setting
• Best Healthcare Support by a UK Charity
• Best Healthcare Workforce Collaboration
• Clinical Support Worker of the Year
• Dedication to a Lifelong Learning Culture
• Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Champion
• Healthcare Volunteer of the Year (new for 2024)
• NHS Improvement through Digital Innovation
• Operational Support Worker of the Year
• Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Healthcare

You can see each award criteria and how to submit in the same place – take a look and nominate your Health Heroes today!

What is the Core Skills Training Framework®?

The Core Skills Training Framework (CSTF) was first developed in 2013 and has become widely recognised as the trusted standard for statutory and mandatory training in the health sector. It helps guide and standardise the focus and the delivery of key statutory and mandatory training skills.

It was developed in collaboration with employers, industry leading experts and professional bodies, such as the Resuscitation Council and the Infection Prevention Society.

Why is it important?

Across the UK, Healthcare staff must undertake statutory and mandatory training and healthcare organisations must be able to prove their compliance on an individual, team and organisational level.

Nominations are open for this year’s Our Health Heroes Awards, delivered by Skills for Health.

Our Health Heroes celebrates the wider healthcare workforce that supports NHS doctors and nurses on the frontline. From porters and cleaners to receptionists, gardeners and security guards, these often unsung heroes make up roughly 40% of the NHS’s million strong workforce.

Our Health Heroes Awards is a national celebration of their achievements and an opportunity to give thanks for the important role that they play in keeping the health service functioning.

New for 2024 is the Healthcare Volunteer of the Year award, which recognises the valuable contribution of volunteers who give their time freely to support our healthcare system. With more than 300 voluntary roles in the NHS, we invite nominations for those who go above and beyond in their free time to brighten the lives of not only patients and services users, but also staff.

Our Health Heroes 2024 award categories

• Apprentice of the Year
• Best Healthcare Workforce Collaboration
• Best Healthcare Initiative in a Justice Setting
• Best Healthcare Support by a UK Charity
• Clinical Support Worker of the Year
• Dedication to a Lifelong Learning Culture – sponsored by SFJ Awards
• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Champion – supported by NHS Race & Health Observatory
• Healthcare Volunteer of the Year
• NHS Improvement through Digital Innovation
• Operational Support Worker of the Year
• Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Healthcare – sponsored by NHS Employers

Skills for Health have launched a new eLearning training course for those handling and working with medical gases. Designed by HAC, experts in medical gas training, it has been created for nurses and other clinical healthcare professionals, and built to the Health Technical Memorandum (HTM02 and SHTM02) standards. 

Training covers everything staff need to know about the safe handling and storage of medical gases, as well as the clinical applications and general regulations surrounding gas use. It aims to equip those responsible for working with gas with the skills and knowledge they need to maintain staff and patient safety.  

Course modules include  

• Medical gas facts 
• Cylinder identification 
• Cylinder valve types 
• Moving, handling and storing gas cylinders 
• Preparing gas cylinders for use 
• The Medical Gas Pipeline System (MGPS).  

Skills for Health are the leading UK not-for-profit provider of training for the health and care sectors. This course joins 90+ specially designed eLearning courses that are available to purchase and access by the healthcare community.  

Skills for Health’s Head of Learning Solutions, Tom Woolrych, says: 

The Mental Health Core Capabilities Framework, which supports mental health skills training and service development, is now available for public consultation. The launch coincides with World Mental Health Day which advocates for education and awareness of mental health and wellbeing.

The existing Mental Health Core Skills Education and Training Framework originally developed in 2016, “is in need of a review in light of growing emphasis on mental health in England since the Covid pandemic” say Skills for Health – the not-for-profit organisation leading on the consultation.

The Core Skills Training Framework (CSTF), which sets out statutory and mandatory training subjects for healthcare staff, is now up for review and open to public consultation. 

Introduced by Skills for Health in 2013, the CSTF is adopted by 85% of NHS organisations in England and universally across the seven local health boards and three NHS trusts in Wales.

Whilst the Framework has undergone a series of incremental updates over the last 10 years, with the most recent being in 2021, its purpose remains constant: To set the benchmark standard for statutory and mandatory training in the health sector. 

To ensure that it continues to be the recognised and trusted benchmark standard, Skills for Health and our partners NHS England and NHS Wales are delighted to invite you to contribute to this review. Your feedback will be used to update the content of the framework alongside advice and guidance from our subject matter experts.

You can provide feedback on as many subject areas covered by the Core Skills Training Framework as you like. As you progress through the survey you will be able to select which subjects you wish to comment on and skip forward over other subjects.

Current CSTF subjects include: Conflict Resolution (England); Equality, Diversity and Human Rights; Fire Safety; Health, Safety and Welfare; Infection Prevention and Control; Information Governance and Data Security; Moving and Handling; Preventing Radicalisation; Resuscitation; Safeguarding Adults; Safeguarding Children and Violence and Aggression (Wales).

The review also includes the proposal to add the following subjects: Learning Disability (Wales) and Learning Disability and Autism (England)

In our latest podcast, Andrew Lovegrove is joined by some of the key names that were instrumental in developing the new  Non-custodial Career and Competence Framework. This framework forms part part of the NHS England Health and Justice Inclusive Workforce Programme, which aims to ‘improve the recruitment and retention of a larger, more diverse, inclusive and representative workforce for all Health & Justice services and programmes’.

In this special podcast, Andrew is joined by Rosemarie Simpson, Senior Consultant at Skills for Health, Glyn Thomas from the Health and Justice Team at NHS England and Michael Blakey, Specialist Clinical Lead at Cumbria, Northumberland and Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust.

The guests discuss the vital importance of delivering vital health services and quality care in a justice setting, some of the current challenges of this work, and what their hopes and expectations are of this framework in overcoming these challenges.

You can listen to the new episode of our series below.

It’s also available on Spotify, Apple and Google so you can listen on the go. This includes the ability to download or listen to podcast content offline, at your convenience.

Follow and subscribe on your favourite channel:

Facing a local and national shortage of Therapeutic Radiographers, University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust (UHD) has embarked on an ambitious project to boost their recruitment and retention with the support of Wessex Cancer Alliance. 

Working with Skills for Health and Health Education England South East it has developed a new structured clinical career pathway for Therapeutic Radiographers focused on breast cancer that will enable progression through to advanced and then consultant level of practice.

It is hoped that expanding and enhancing career progression routes will make a career in therapeutic radiotherapy more attractive to new recruits and help with the retention of existing staff.

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer in the UK; it is therefore a top priority to boost to the workforce says UHD Head of Therapy Radiography David Frost.

As the NHS has turned 75, the team at Skills for Health are celebrating this milestone anniversary by taking a look back at how we’ve helped to enable our beloved national institution navigate change over the years.

Skills for Health began life as the National Sector Skills Council for Health back in 2001, with the express purpose of empowering the NHS workforce to deliver a better health service for all.

In our early years we focused on creating national competency frameworks (labelled National Occupational Standards) for Cancer Services, Mental Health Services and a whole range of service areas. Over the years these frameworks were utilised as the foundations for qualifications, to support service re-design and for individual personal development planning. Their impact has been widespread as the basis for the development of huge numbers of staff.

We were also the lead innovators in the development and support of apprenticeships in the early 2000s, driving annual apprenticeship completions up from 800 in year one to over 12,000 per year by 2012. We continue to be a key partner working with the NHS England Workforce directorate to support the continued development of apprenticeships across the NHS – and are delighted to see their prominence and the recently published NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan.

As well as being at the forefront of how we think about skills and staffing in the NHS, Skills for Health has also played a leading role in the mass adoption of eLearning across the health service. Our e-learning platform has delivered training to over 250,000 learners per year since 2012, enabling a significant proportion of the workforce to learn new skills at any time, any place in a way that suits them.

Through the years we have also focused on the development of capability frameworks, such as the Core Skills Training Framework that was developed and launched in 2012. The Core Skills Training Framework (CSTF) sets out 12 statutory and mandatory training topics and minimum learning outcomes for staff working in healthcare and has been adopted by over 85% of NHS organisations. The CSTF enables staff to move between employers compliantly without the need for duplicate training. This has saved the NHS millions of pounds since it was introduced.

As a not-for-profit organisation, we have always aimed to support the NHS in difficult periods. In March 2020, we launched a Covid-19 eLearning package (free to all NHS staff) to educate the workforce on how to recognise the symptoms of coronavirus, how to effectively use PPE, important infection prevention and control measures, and the key elements of dealing with an unknown highly infectious virus.

We also supported the vaccine rollout. Working with NHS Professionals, Skills for Health provided a solution to onboard thousands of vaccinators in record quick time. From initial scoping to implementation our LearnSpace solution was online and operational, ready to onboard vaccinators in the space of a week and a half.

As we look to the future of our NHS, just last year we launched the Virtual Wards (VW) and Urgent Community Response (UCR) Capabilities Framework in partnership with NHS England. The first multi-professional framework of its kind, this pioneering piece of work will support the expansion of both virtual ward and urgent in-home service delivery models across, which are viewed by many as the future of healthcare.

Skills for Health is proud to have played our small part in supporting our NHS and healthcare workers to deliver better patient care over the years.

With nearly a quarter of a century under our belt, we reaffirm our commitment to standing side by side with the NHS and look forward to continuing to do so for many more years to come.

On 5 July the NHS turned 75. To mark this special occasion, the team at Skills for Health share what the NHS means to them and why they value about Skills for Health and its role in supporting our treasured national institution.  

The latest episode of our podcast series – Lovegrove on Health is now available.

Andrew Lovegrove, Senior Consultant at Skills for Health is joined by special guest John Rogers, Skills for Health Chief Executive.  Andrew and John discuss the NHS’ 75th birthday and their own experiences of working within and alongside the NHS. John provides personal highlights on some of the most impactful initiatives Skills for Health has delivered to support the wider health and care workforce and both look at the challenges that lie ahead for the sector and quality service outcomes.

You can listen to the new episode of our series below.

It’s also available on Spotify, Apple and Google so you can listen on the go. This includes the ability to download or listen to podcast content offline, at your convenience.

Follow and subscribe on your favourite channel:

The winners of the seventh annual Our Health Heroes Awards were announced yesterday (7 June) at a glittering awards ceremony held at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London.

Supported by NHS England, UNISON, NHS Employers, SFJ Awards, NHS Race & Health Observatory and National Health Executive, Our Health Heroes Awards celebrates the wider healthcare workforce that supports our NHS doctors and nurses on the frontline.

From porters and cleaners to receptionists, gardeners and security guards, these often unsung heroes make up roughly 40% of the NHS’s million plus workforce; Our Health Heroes Awards is a national celebration of their achievements and an opportunity to give thanks for the important role that they play in keeping our health service functioning.

This year’s gold, silver and bronze winners (listed below in that order for each category) are as follows:

Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Healthcare, sponsored by NHS Employers:

• Toni Starr, Neonatal Sister, Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Salli Jeynes, Chief Executive Officer, The End of Life Partnership
• Sandra Hands, Cluster Manager for North West Prisons, Spectrum Community Health CIC

Apprentice of the Year, sponsored by UNISON:

• Joe Maslen, Radiotherapy Assistant Practitioner, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
• Rochelle Sampson-Clarke, Estates Project Officer, Solent NHS Trust
• Hailei Petersen, Apprentice Nurse, Devon Partnership NHS Trust

Operational Support Worker of the Year, sponsored by UNISON:

• Mary McElroy, Integrated Care Team Admin Support, Southern Health & Social Care Trust
• Laura Cavina, Involvement Volunteer Coordinator, South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust
• Katie Whittam, Coordinator/Trainer, South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Clinical Support Worker of the Year:

• Karen Read, Breast Cancer Support Worker, Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust
• Edelle Brown, Associate Practitioner, City Health Partnership CIC
• Helen McGowan-Thomson, Recruitment and Education Support Assistant, Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Team award category winners:

• The Sleep Charity (Dedication to a Lifelong Learning Culture – sponsored by SFJ Awards)
• Brighter Futures, Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Best Health and Care Initiative by a UK Charity)
• Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust (NHS Improvement through Digital Innovation)
• Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (Best Integrated Care Workforce Programme)
• Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust (Best Emergency Services Collaboration)
• Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust (Best Healthcare Initiative in a Community or Criminal Justice Setting)
• Practice Plus Group (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Champion)

John Rogers, Chief Executive of Skills for Health, said:

“A huge congratulations to all Our Health Heroes finalists. Without the wider healthcare workforce that Our Health Heroes Awards aims to recognise and celebrate our NHS would grind to a halt. Now more than ever, it is important to raise awareness of the valuable contribution that these inspirational teams and individuals make to the health of the nation and to thank them publicly for the sacrifices they make.”

Sarah Gorton, Head of Health at category sponsors UNISON, said:

“Huge congratulations to all the Our Health Heroes finalists and winners. The NHS simply could not function without the whole team. These awards shine a light on outstanding individuals whose work helps keep quality patient care at the core of the NHS. The hard work, dedication and expertise of health staff deserves to be recognised. These accolades give everyone the chance to celebrate the entire team.”

Danny Mortimer, Chief Executive of category sponsors NHS Employers, said:

“NHS Employers is proud to support the Our Health Heroes Awards Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Healthcare category for 2023.

“I would like to pass on my sincere congratulations to all the winners of this year’s awards and to thank them for their contribution to the NHS.

“It is great that we can recognise the efforts of these individuals and teams through these awards and to celebrate the huge difference they make to patient care.”

Dr Habib Naqvi, Chief Executive of the NHS Race & Health Observatory, said:

“We were delighted to support this year’s Our Health Heroes Awards and the new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Champion award category. Warmest congratulations to Faisal Zaman, and all finalists of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion champion award, on your well-deserved efforts and recognition. We are so proud of the hard work you are undertaking in ensuring your organisation actions commitment towards a diverse and inclusive workplace where all staff can thrive. EDI initiatives are crucial; not only do they benefit the healthcare workforce, but they also positively impact on the care and outcomes for all patients.”

The Our Health Heroes Awards 2023 is delivered by Skills for Health and supported by NHS England, UNISON, NHS Employers, NHS Race & Health Observatory and National Health Executive. To find out more visit: www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/awards