Support Workers head up
a roll call of excellence at charity awards
SUPPORT workers at a North West
charity headed up a roll call of excellence at an awards ceremony, at
Southport's Convention Centre, for the 2nd Annual AFG People Awards.
Staff from across the region were presented with awards from their employer
Alternative Futures Group (AFG) at its annual People's Awards. They were
praised for their support for colleagues, positive values and close
involvement in their communities.
AFG is a charity which supports more than 1200 people with learning
disabilities and mental health needs every year across the North West. This
is achieved by providing around the clock support within the community, in
peoples own homes or in 1 of 8 specialist treatment and recovery centres.
The gala event saw staff from across the North West come together to
celebrate their successes.
Neil Campbell, chief executive at Alternative Futures Group said:-
"The People's Awards were set up to recognise and highlight the dedication,
commitment and excellence of all of our staff.
More than 650 nominations were received across the 12 award categories by
staff, people the charity supports, family members and carers. There were so
many worthy winners on the night and all of them deserve a special mention."
This includes Craig Evason, who was presented with the team Leader of the
year award, for his work leading a team of Support Workers in The Wirral.
More information can be found by visiting:-
AlternativeFuturesGroup.Org.UK or by visiting our
Facebook page, 'AFG Support'. You can also follow us on Twitter:- @AFGSupport.
A Nationwide Creative
Writing Anti-Bullying Competition
BULLYING UK and the FriXion erasable
pen from Pilot Pen UK launch their #writeitout anti bullying creative writing
competition to help parents, pupils and teachers tackle bullying throughout the
UK.
The competition wants schools, families and adult carers to encourage pupils and
children in their care to step away from their laptop or hand-held device and
explore through pen and paper how we can erase bullying.
Entries are welcome in a variety of forms and schools and individuals can:-
1. Write a Letter to their Younger Self.
2. To an Imaginary Bully.
3. To an imaginary Bullied Person.
4. Write about how they will tackle bullying if they see it happening.
5. Write a positive poem about tackling bullying.
The winning school/youth organisation, and individual will receive a prize of a
Pilot Pen UK educational pack containing FriXion erasable pens and colouring
pens and a range of rollerball pens, fountain pens and whiteboard markers)
Stuart Barker, Pilot Pen UK Marketing Manager said:- "Writing can help a
child to channel and make sense of their emotions and also explore ways to
resolve a difficult issue such as bullying. It's important to raise awareness of the
damaging effects bullying can have and to stress there is help out there for
children and young people when they are faced with these difficult situations.
I'm delighted that Pilot Pen UK with our
FriXion erasable pen are helping in the fight to tackle bullying and raise
awareness of BullyingUK."
Suzie Hayman, BullyingUK Trustee, Agony Aunt and author of over 30 books said:-
"Bullying in and out of school remains an issue for many of the families
that contact us. So today we launch our creative writing anti bullying campaign.
We hope our partnership with Pilot Pen
UK will encourage young people to get involved in scribing positive messages
about dealing with bullying; how to help someone being bullied, how to avoid
being pulled into bullying and how bullying affects people. Our competition is open to families,
schools, and youth groups. We want to encourage young people to sit down with
friends and family to share ideas on how to defeat bullying. We know bullying
can affect children's emotional wellbeing and academic achievement and we all
need to stand against it."
Entries for BullyingUK and Pilot Pen UK's Creative Writing Competition must be
received by no later than 5 p.m. on 13 November 2015.
For more information on tackling bullying, visit
them
online.
All competition entrants can enter via
email or by Postal delivery to:- #writeitout
Competition, BullyingUK, Endway House, Endway, Hadleigh, Essex, SS72AN.
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New report sheds light on
Top Hospital complaints investigated by the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman
A report published recently has
revealed that, similar to 2014, the top 3 reasons for Hospital complaints
investigated by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman in the last
financial year (2014 to 201515) were poor communication, errors in diagnosis and
poor treatment.
Non-medical aspects of patient care are cited as a factor in almost
˝ of all complaints investigated by the Parliamentary
and Health Service Ombudsman.
Poor communication, including quality and accuracy of information, was a factor
in ⅓ of all complaints.
Other reasons for complaints in this period included staff attitude and
behaviour, which were factors in 2 out of 10 complaints.
The report outlines how many unresolved complaints the Parliamentary and Health
Service Ombudsman investigated for every acute trust in England and the final
decision made.
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Julie Mellor said:- "We know
that there are many factors that influence the number of complaints Hospitals
receive, such as organisational size, demographics and whether they actively
encourage feedback from patients. I strongly believe that NHS leaders should
welcome feedback from patients and recognise the opportunities that good
complaint handling offers to improve the services they provide. We are
publishing this data to help Hospital Trusts identify problems and take action
to ensure trust in the healthcare system remains high."
The report compares the number of complaints the Parliamentary and Health
Service Ombudsman investigates to the size of each trust. The size of the Trust
is determined by the number of 'clinical incidents' such as
outpatient appointments, elective surgery and emergency admissions the trust has
carried out. This shows how likely a trust is to receive a complaint about its
service.
The report reveals that the number of enquiries the Parliamentary and Health
Service Ombudsman has received and investigated about acute trusts, increased in
2014 to 2015, compared to 2013 to 2014:-
► In 2014 to 15, it received 21,371 enquiries about the NHS, compared to 18,870,
in 2013 to 2014.
► Of these enquiries, 8,853 were about acute trusts in 2014 to 2015, compared to
8,178, in 2013 to 2014.
► It completed 1,652 investigations about acute trusts in 2014 to 2015, compared
to 852, in 2013 to 2014. This rise can largely be explained by the Parliamentary
and Health Service Ombudsman in 2013 to 2015 changing the way it handles
complaints to undertake more investigations, resulting in it now completing ten
times as many investigations in 2014 to 2015 than in 2012 to 2013. It completed
384 investigations, in 2012 to 2013 and 4,159 investigations, in 2014 to 2015.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman makes final decisions on
complaints which haven't been resolved locally by the NHS in England. In 2014 to
2015 it upheld 36% of the cases it investigated about the NHS and 44% about
acute trusts.
Gloryhunter Scores with new
Apple watchOS2 App
THE Liverpool based startup Gloryhunter,
the real time English football league game, have announced their arrival their
new Apple watchOS2 app. The app has been designed to complement the iOS version
of the game which launched for the 2015/16 English football league season.
"When we looked at the features that
were going to be available as part of OS2, we immediately recognised the
potential for Gloryhunter. With WatchOS 2, Apple Watch apps run natively for
better performance. For an app like Gloryhunter it's a perfect fit, live scores
and match updates, available immediately on your wrist. When creating the
Gloryhunter Apple watch app the new WatchOS 2 architecture enabled us to reuse
the majority of the iPhone code, development was rapid and efficient."
said the game's co-creator Stuart Kay. Even with the delayed
launched of OS2, Gloryhunter will be 1 of the 1st apps, in the app store that
full support the capabilities of iOS 9 and Watch0S2. They join 1 of many high
tec small North West business, based here in Liverpool to do well in the
technology market and demostrates Liverpool's ability to adapt to new challanges,
to win! |