ECCH shortlisted for two national awards

East Coast Community Healthcare (ECCH) has been shortlisted for two prestigious national awards.

The charitable interest company, which provides NHS and public health services in Norfolk and Waveney, is a finalist in the UK Social Enterprise Awards in the categories of Health and Social Care Social Enterprise and also Employee Engagement.

The awards recognise businesses that give back to their communities and make a contribution to society. They are organised by Social Enterprise UK, the leading global authority on social enterprise.

This year 96% of service users said they would recommend ECCH’s services in the NHS Friends and Family Test survey. The survey also showed 100% of respondents would recommend ECCH’s pioneering Out of Hospital Teams which have proved so successful since they were launched in Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth that a third service was launched in south Waveney earlier this year.

ECCH uses its surplus resources to benefit the local community whether by offering staff time and/or funding for additional services or by supporting good causes. This year the organisation picked up the financial shortfall to keep a number of services running such as the Family Nurse Partnership which supports teenage mothers in the Waveney area. ECCH also ran a training course for young unemployed people in partnership with The Prince’s Trust, offered free safeguarding training and baby life-saving classes and set up breastfeeding cafés to support parents despite cuts in its funding for breastfeeding support.

ECCH is staff owned with 80% of its employees opting to become shareholders and have a real say in decisions that affect the organisation. Two Staff Directors, who are nominated by their colleagues, sit on the Board, and a Shareholder Council has been set up as a sub-committee of the Board. This year ECCH launched a cultural change programme to build on its strong employee engagement ethos.

ECCH is also one of only a handful of healthcare providers in the country to be granted ISO14001:2015 status by the British Standards Institute for reducing its environmental impact.

ECCH chief executive Jonathan Williams said: “We have a lot to be proud of at ECCH. Our staff are dedicated to providing the highest quality of services. Their passion for serving our communities and for the organisation itself is demonstrated by their commitment every day. To be finalists for not one but two SEUK awards is the icing on the cake and a testament to the efforts of every single member of staff.”

A spokesman for SEUK said: “Once again we had an incredible response to the Awards with so many fantastic applications. The quantity and quality of work being done across the UK is hugely inspiring and a real testament to the strength of social enterprise in this country.”

The awards ceremony will be held at the Guildhall in London on 28th November.