ECCH highly commended for national Employee Ownership Award
East Coast Community Healthcare (ECCH) has been voted runner-up Public Service Mutual of the Year in the prestigious UK Employee Ownership Association (EOA) awards for the second year.
The awards, which are run by the EOA and sponsored by Baxendale, celebrate the significant contribution employee owned businesses make to the UK economy. The Public Service Mutual of the Year Award celebrates an organisation that demonstrates how its employee owned status is driving great impacts within the business and in the communities it serves.
83% of staff have voluntarily bought a share in ECCH, which has its headquarters in Lowestoft. The share, which costs just £1, gives those staff a say in key decisions about the running of the organisation. However, they don’tt receive dividends because, as a community interest company, ECCH’s surplus resources are reinvested to benefit the local community or used to support good causes.
This year 95% of service users said they would recommend ECCH’s services in the NHS Friends and Family Test survey. It was the highest performing community health organisation in the country – and in the eastern region for the third consecutive year – for staff flu vaccinations after 84.1% front line staff opted to have a flu jab. In January the organisation was reawarded the NHS contract to provide adult community services across Great Yarmouth and Waveney.
ECCH has also won awards this year for its ‘health coaching’ approach to empowering patients to manage long term conditions, and for its research into the effects of a warm home on people’s health. A pilot scheme to introduce a new skin tear pathway in three care homes has proved so successful that NHS Great Yarmouth and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group decided to introduce the program in 90 care homes across the area.
ECCH chief executive Jonathan Williams said: “I’ve never known a year quite like 2019 – having been reawarded the NHS contract for adult community services in January, we have been working flat out to implement our new model of care based around Primary Care Networks. It’s required a huge amount of patience and energy from our staff to ensure we’re providing the innovation and quality we set out to deliver. Maintaining our highly commended status from the EOA is testament to the strong culture at ECCH and how our teams work together in order to achieve. I’m extremely proud of that.”
Deb Oxley OBE, CEO of the EOA, said: “Our awards recognise the productivity, innovation and excellence driven by teams and individuals in employee owned businesses. What ECCH shows is how firms can drive strong employee engagement through offering a stake and a say, and by adopting governance that supports a healthy culture of transparency. Not only does this lead to happier, more engaged workplaces, it means we have better businesses, which have outstanding growth and stronger foundations for the future.”
About the author
ECCH Communications team