Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust is proud to reveal that the Healthy Together health visiting and school nursing service has been shortlisted for the ‘generating impact in population health through digital’ award at the inaugural HSJ Digital Awards. These awards recognise outstanding contributions to healthcare and earn organisations the opportunity to showcase their achievements on a national platform.

Healthy Together created and implemented digital health and wellbeing forms as a way of assessing health needs in schools and colleges. The forms ask children in year 6 and young people in years 9 and 11 questions to assess a range of health and wellbeing areas, such as physical health, mental and emotional wellbeing and nutrition and lifestyle.

The forms provide health and education professionals with data to plan interventions such as targeted assemblies, teacher training, articles on the local Health for Kids and Health for Teens websites, and in-school support for children and young people.  The forms identify when a child or young person is in need of face-to-face care. In addition, everyone who completes a form receives a personalised care plan, according to their responses, including links to helpful content and videos developed by clinical professionals.

Despite the tough competition, according to the judges, Healthy Together’s digital health and wellbeing forms stood out as a ‘success story’ worthy of a prized place on the panel’s shortlist. At this first stage of judging, the shortlist was based on ambition; outcome; value; involvement and working together and crucially, how the project might be ‘picked up’ and replicated elsewhere for the benefit of both patients and professional colleagues.

Sarah Tebbett, digital clinical lead at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, said:

“The fact we’ve been shortlisted in these awards will undoubtedly be a huge ‘pat on the back’ for our amazingly hard working and deserving team.  Our staff always go above and beyond to improve children and young people’s outcomes and quality of service and care – and the exposure from the HSJ Digital Awards programme really allows us to not only share our success with other NHS Trusts, but also share everything we’ve learnt through implementing our project.”

An impressive 314 entries were received for the HSJ Digital Awards 2023, with 164 projects and individuals making it to the final shortlist (from across 120 organisations). The high volume – and exceptional quality – of applications reflects the breadth of innovation and care across the UK’s health and care systems.

In its opening year, the HSJ Digital Awards aims to shine a light on the outstanding efforts and achievements that individuals and teams across the digital sector deliver on a daily basis.

The judging panel is made up of a diverse range of highly influential and respected figures within the healthcare community, including:

  • Ifan Evans (Executive Director, Digital Strategy, NHS Wales);
  • Dr Nnenna Osuji (Chief Executive, North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust);
  • Jonathan Cameron (Deputy Director – Digital Health and Care, Scottish Government);
  • Ronke Adejolu, National Associate Chief Nursing Information Officer, NHS England);
  • Masood Ahmed (CCIO, NHS Midlands); and
  • Ananta Dave (Chief Medical Officer, Black Country and West Birmingham ICB).

HSJ editor, Alastair McLellan, added:

“On behalf of all my colleagues, it gives me great pleasure to congratulate Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust on being shortlisted as a finalist in the ‘generating impact in population health through digital’ category. All of the applications represent the ‘very best of the NHS’ and often leave our esteemed panel of judges with an impossible choice!

“We’re all very much looking forward to welcoming our finalists to the awards ceremony in June, celebrating their impressive achievements and jointly acknowledging our values of sharing best practice, improving outcomes and continuously driving for better service. But we never forget that the award ceremony is not just a celebration within a night, but a platform to recognise the hard work of all our NHS staff, all year round.”

A full list of nominees for the 2023 HSJ Digital Awards can be found here.

The winners will be announced during the awards ceremony at Manchester Central on Thursday, 22 June 2023.