Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has been announced as the deserving winner of the ‘Best Recruitment Experience’ category at the 2021 Nursing Times Workforce Awards.
For many years now, the Nursing Times has long been established as the voice of the nursing community giving the most up-to-date best practice to support professional development.
Winners were crowned across 15 categories recognising organisations and individuals going above and beyond to recruit, develop and retain their nursing workforce.
The event, held in London on Wednesday (17 November), brought together over 500 award finalists and guests from across the health and care community.
Following a rigorous judging process, Bridgewater emerged as the outstanding winner of ‘Best Recruitment Experience’ for a recent and successful Health Care Support Worker recruitment campaign.
This carefully crafted campaign was about making the NHS accessible as a career path of choice to people and communities who previously thought the NHS was beyond their reach.
Using a clear and concise recruitment drive, and at a time when many people were losing their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Trust got the message out there to the thousands whose life skills they welcome and value.
The judges praised Bridgewater for:
“An innovative approach that embraced social media and marketing, engaging with external partners to bring new recruits into starter jobs into the health service with no previous NHS experience.”
Speaking about the win, Bridgewater Chief Executive, Colin Scales said:
“As a community trust we are embedded in the communities we serve. Our staff live alongside their patients. They know and understand the challenges they face.
“Covid-19 has without doubt changed peoples career directions. Sadly, many have had no choice but to leave their previous roles. No NHS experience was needed for the team of Health Care Support Workers we were recruiting for, as on the job training and development was part of the package we were offering. This saw all but 3 applications from non-NHS backgrounds such as retail and hospitality.
“This award win is recognition of all the hard work that went on behind the scenes to encourage people living in our community to consider a career in the NHS. This really is a fitting achievement, and my thanks goes to everyone involved in making this happen.”
In addition to the triumphant win at the Nursing Times Workforce Awards, Bridgewater was also named as a top three finalist in the category of ‘Best Employer for Staff Recognition’. This was in acknowledgement of the Trust’s 10-year anniversary and thank you event held in April.
Karen Bliss is Chair at Bridgewater, She added:
“It is a tremendous achievement to not only win an award, but to be named as finalists in two of the categories at the Nursing Times Workforce Awards.
“After what has been, and continues to be, an incredibly challenging time for the NHS, we’re very grateful to the judges for highlighting the importance that community services play.
“Our dedicated workforce is the beating heart of Bridgewater. After such a tough 18 or so months, this award win and finalist recognition is truly deserved.”
For the past decade, Bridgewater has delivered NHS health and care closer to a patient’s home and away from a hospital. Community locations include clinics, health centres, community centres, schools, care settings and patient homes.
The Trust is a leading provider of NHS community health services to the people of Warrington, Halton, St Helens and Oldham. It also provides community dental services across key areas throughout Greater Manchester and Cheshire.