Applications invited for HSE Achievement Awards

The HSE Achievement Awards were created to recognise and celebrate outstanding work by health and social care staff. The HSE held regional and national competitions in 2007 and 2008 and now, after a gap of one year, the Awards are back.

Applications are now being invited for the 2010 Awards. The awards are open to health service settings directly run or funded by HSE.

A revised process has been created for the Awards, making the application and selection process more user-friendly, simplified and attractive for applicants.

All initiatives that support the delivery of health and social care services in any way are invited to apply. These may include any service provided directly to the public, including clinical services and primary care.

The Awards process for the 2010 competition will be built on six criteria:
1. Integration will assess the extent to which your project supports healthcare workers and professionals, regardless of whether they are hospital or community based, to work together in teams, planning and delivering care seamlessly. Your project should show evidence of enabling and encouraging this integrated way of working.

2. Experience will assess evidence that the project has addressed and impacted on quality of service, patient/service user safety and care. It will also assess compliance with health and safety legislation. Your project should clearly identify improvements that you have achieved for patient experience, quality of care and patient safety.

3. Engagement will assess the degree to which the project has considered the needs of the patient/service user in its design and implementation. In addition, it will assess the degree to which the project has created channels that ensure involvement of, consultation with and input from internal and external stakeholders, including, but may not be limited to, patients/service users, staff, unions and partnership processes.

4. Transferability will assess the potential for the learning from the project to be replicated to other parts of the health services.

5. Efficiency will assess how the project has created a more streamlined approach to service delivery and delivered increased efficiencies/resource savings.

6. Unique features will allow applicants to highlight unique features of their project that may fall outside the other criteria.

Application forms will soon be available on the Change Hub, located at www.hseland.ie, the HSE’s online resource for learning and development.  Applicants are requested to complete the on line application form on the Change Hub in order to make the process as paperless as possible, lowering administration costs. The closing date for applications is 3 June 2010.

Shortlisted projects will be evaluated by a national selection panel comprised of representatives from the HSE, partnership, patient/service user advocacy groups, and independents.  The awards process will be managed by a national co-ordinator and governed by a steering Group.

A national awards presentation ceremony will be held in Autumn 2010. The Awards will be as follows:
• The Derek Dockery Award for Overall Best Project with two runners up (three awards)
• Best project from each region and runner up (eight awards).

At their discretion, the National Panel may make additional awards in the form of commendation for projects that excelled in particular criteria.

For further information, email the national co-ordinator for the Achievement Awards, Denise O’Shea, at denise.oshea@hse.ie or internalcomms@hse.ie.