Barnet Council has been jointly shortlisted with its partner councils in North London for a national award for improvements to the quality of care received by residents in its network of adult care homes.
Barnet Council jointly shortlisted with its partner councils in North London for a national award
The North London Councils partnership, which comprises the borough councils of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington, was put forward as a finalist in the Local Government Chronicle’s (LGC) 2021 annual awards in the ‘Health & Social Care’ category. It is the only multi-council partnership to be named as a finalist in this year’s awards.
Competition judges shortlisted the partnership for its successful innovations in tackling the North London area’s shortage of beds and reducing the cost of care provision. Judges also considered the partnership’s advances to increase the size of its professional carer workforce and its ability to provide high-quality care in response to the challenges created by COVID-19.
Dawn Wakeling, a founding member of the North London Councils partnership and director of adult social for Barnet Council, said:
“I’m thrilled that we’ve been shortlisted in this year’s LGC Awards. Our partnership has seen us jointly tackle some the biggest issues to providing first-rate support for our thousands of adult care residents. Through the systems we’ve put in place, our care home residents now receive a higher quality of care from better management of available beds, more trained staff, and best-practice measures to protect against COVID-19.
“The success of our joined-up approach is now used as a model for the rest of London’s councils. Our shortlisting recognises the hard work and dedication of our teams to support many of North London’s most vulnerable residents.”
Prior to the pandemic, the partnership was focused on improving efficiencies in the local care home market, which cut expected annual cost increases by £6.5m. It also oversaw a recruitment drive to attract more people into the carer workforce, which resulted in more than 900 people register their interest in roles in North London’s care homes. During the COVID-19 crisis, the partnership put best-practice measures in place to protect residents from the risk of infection, which succeeded in significantly reducing the number of cases in the pandemic’s second wave.
The winners of the LGC Awards 2021 will be named in November. To see the shortlisting in full visit: | LGC Awards 2021 (lgcplus.com)