Lancashire Care receives prestigious award at the Allocate Awards 2018

Lancashire Care receives prestigious award at the Allocate Awards 2018

Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust’s Temporary Staffing Team have received a prestigious award at this year’s Allocate Awards.

The Allocate Awards celebrates and rewards those who have made a difference, whether that’s to patients, colleagues, their entire organisation, or to the wider NHS. The Trust’s Temporary Staffing Team received the ‘Improving Working Lives’ category at this year’s awards and have been recognised for their work in providing the best opportunities for staff to work flexibly around their commitments using the Allocate Software systems. The team have been working hard to develop the full capability of the Allocate system in order to provide a wide range of opportunities for both substantive staff who wish to work additional shifts. Bank workers have access to ad hoc and block bookings of a variety of available shifts they can book from a mobile app.

The team’s overall objective was to increase the fairness of access to work, raise staff morale and provide a single route of access to different types of work to meet individuals’ preferences. The successful implementation of the new system has meant that the Trust has increased its bank fill rates, meaning that there are more, regular staff working for the Trust resulting in consistent and improved care for our patients.

Wendy Simpson, Temporary Staffing Manager at Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust said:

“We are delighted to have received the Improving Working Lives Award at this year’s Allocate Awards. The team have been working extremely hard to ensure that staff across the organisation have the best possible opportunities and that the systems we have in place mean that staff can work flexibly around their commitments.

“We have received some really positive feedback from staff about the systems and it is great that we are able to offer a shift booking system which really meets the needs of our workforce. We are so pleased that our team has been recognised nationally and had a great evening celebrating all of the achievements!”

Zuber Patel, Senior Matron at Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust said:

“Bank staff are the resource that keeps our patients safe when the going gets tough. We rely on them to be compassionate with patients but we get the flexibility to deploy them where we need them most.

“The Temporary Staffing Team always keep us updated when there are issues and if we ever need them they are available to help. The systems are excellent because it is transparent and that means we can do so much more than before with the same number of staff.”

The winners will be revealed at the Allocate Awards 2018 ceremony on 17 October 2018 at Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Manchester. For more information please visit www.allocatesoftware.co.uk/events/?id=allocate-awards-2018.