Scottish Public Service Awards 2017

Scottish Public Service Awards 2017 winners - Image credit: Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament

“Tonight offers us the chance to celebrate outstanding achievements within Scotland’s public services. The awards recognise the important work carried out across public services in Scotland and the third sector. They also recognise the vital relationships that cut across departments throughout the country and institutional boundaries,” said Deputy Presiding Officer Christine Grahame, as she opened the fourth Scottish Public Service Awards at the Scottish Parliament.

Senior civil servants, council officers and representatives from the third and private sectors gathered in the Scottish Parliament for the annual awards, which were chaired by journalist Pennie Taylor, to recognise excellence across the public sector in Scotland.

In a recorded message, the First Minister thanked all the nominees for their “tireless commitment” to public service.

Co-hosting the awards with Grahame was finance secretary Derek Mackay, who told guests: “The attendance list tonight reads something like a roll of honour in public life and I thank you for that. Many of the projects are truly electrifying and the people really are fantastic leaders within the public sector.”

The roll call of excellence culminated in the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to Professor Alice Brown for her long service to civic life in Scotland, which has included a key role in the setting up of the Scottish Parliament. Having been involved in the awards from the other side, Brown extended her acceptance of the awards to others.

She said: “I’ve been a judge in these awards and I’m always amazed, always just stunned by the quality and the extent of things that people do to make a difference. I’m more than delighted to accept this award. I will treasure it. But I accept it on behalf of all of those in public service who genuinely make a difference and try to change the world and improve people’s lives for the better.”

Campbell Christie Public Service Reform Award

Sponsored by EY

Winner: Scottish Fire & Rescue Service and Scottish Ambulance Service for OHCA co-responding

Co-responding between the Scottish Ambulance Service and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service began in November 2015 with the intention of getting help to people suffering an out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) as quickly as possible to increase their chances of survival. Staff from the Scottish Ambulance Service trained Scottish Fire and Rescue Service crews to deliver high-quality CPR. Where fire crews are closer than ambulance staff or paramedics, the specially trained fire crews, equipped with life-saving defibrillators and oxygen, will respond to the emergency alongside ambulance medics.

Championing Gender Equality Award

Winner: Perth & Kinross Council for Men in Childcare

Men in Childcare aims to address the inequality within the early years and childcare workforce. This project, involving a free bespoke night class specifically for men, gives an introduction to working with children in a professional capacity. It has been running for three years, with each year’s programme varying slightly in delivery to respond to the group. This year the National Progression Award (NPA) was replaced with a play unit, a child development unit and a working in childcare unit.

Commercial Partnerships Award

Winner: Scotland Excel for the Domestic Furniture and Furnishings Framework

Scotland Excel’s Domestic Furniture and Furnishings Framework was implemented in November 2016. The framework is the primary means by which local authorities in Scotland spend their allocation of the government’s Scottish Welfare Fund to furnish temporary homes for those in need. It is an innovative and successful example of how a public procurement approach can meet the needs of councils and local residents, while also creating economic opportunities for the Scottish reuse market and for supported businesses.

Communications Award

Sponsored by Coca-Cola

Winner: North Ayrshire Council for the Save Our Ferry campaign

The Keep it A(rdrossan) to B(rodick) – Save Our Ferry campaign was launched by North Ayrshire Council in 2016 to retain the ferry service between Ardrossan and Brodick, on the Isle of Arran, following news that Associated British Ports, the owners of the Port of Troon, were bidding for the Arran ferry. With the threat of the loss of Ardrossan’s main economic driver, the team compiled key factsheets supporting their case which were distributed on Arran and the mainland.

Community Engagement Award

Sponsored by Caledonian MacBrayne

Winner: Renfrewshire Community Safety Partnership and St Mirren FC for Street Stuff

Street Stuff provides diversionary activities and support programmes for harder to reach young people across Renfrewshire. The organisation is a partnership between Renfrewshire Council, St Mirren FC, Engage Renfrewshire, Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. Over the past year, there have been 43,000 recorded attendees of activities such as football, dance and clubbercise. These activities have improved social inclusion and provided access to young people who may not otherwise have joined in.

Digital Public Services Award

Sponsored by Objective

Winner: NHS 24, NHS National Service Scotland and NHS Grampian for Attend Anywhere Project

The Attend Anywhere Project is designed to support transformational change in health and care services. Consisting of staff members from the Scottish Centre for Telehealth and Telecare in NHS 24, NHS NSS and the National VC team in NHS Grampian, the project took the benefits of traditional conference calling and removed the barriers to accessibility that prevented it being a viable consultation option. Requiring only the internet and a web browser, it means that people can consult with a health professional securely from their own home in an efficient and cost-effective way.

Employee Development and Skills Award

Winner: Aberdeenshire Council for DLITE Teacher Recruitment

Aberdeenshire has experienced some of the worst teacher shortages in the country. In response, Aberdeenshire Council developed the Distance Learning Initial Teacher Education (DLITE) programme as part of its ‘Pathways into Teaching’ strategy. This innovative programme allowed able and talented employees to enter the teaching profession.

Leadership Award

Sponsored by the Improvement Service

Winner: Alexander Holt, head of the Scottish Government’s CivTech programme

Alexander Holt leads CivTech, the Scottish Government’s innovative business accelerator programme focused exclusively on harnessing entrepreneurial, digital talent to address public service challenges. With the support of his colleagues across the Scottish Government, Holt has built a team whose ethos is the relentless pursuit of excellence. This permeates every interaction with partners across all sections of society: private, public, third sectors, academia, citizen groups and international bodies.

Policy Development Award

Winner: Scottish Government and North Ayrshire Council for the North Ayrshire Inclusive Growth Pilot

In a partnership between the Scottish Government and North Ayrshire Council, the ‘North Ayrshire Inclusive Growth Pilot’ is a pioneering project targeted at increasing inclusive economic growth in one of Scotland’s most deprived communities. Working closely with the council, the Scottish Government developed a ‘prioritisation tool’ for the area, which helped North Ayrshire identify how to prioritise investment decisions and policy actions across local, regional and national decision-making levels for long-term transformational growth.

Project and Programme Management Award

Sponsored by the Project Management Institute

Winner: Transport Scotland for the Forth Replacement Crossing project

Opened to the public on 30 August 2017, the ‘Forth Replacement Crossing’ project has combined innovative design, exceptional project management and quality governance to improve overall transport links between Edinburgh, Fife, Tayside and the north of Scotland.

Rising Star Award

Winner: Demi Lee Lumsden, City of Edinburgh Council

Demi Lee Lumsden is a customer service adviser who in her day to day role takes calls from tenants in Edinburgh requesting repairs to their homes. Demi also recently took on the role of academy leader within the team and was involved in the development of five new departmental staff.

Third Sector Partnership Award

Winner: Children in Scotland for Food, Families, Futures

In 2016, Children in Scotland launched Food, Families, Futures, a ground-breaking project addressing food poverty and its links with education and health, focused on areas of deprivation in Scotland. Food, Families, Futures is an innovative multi-partner project, combining third sector and business expertise with schools at the heart of their communities, responding to local need.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Winner: Professor Alice Brown CBE

Having taken a degree in politics and economics as a mature student following a stint as a shorthand typist, Professor Alice Brown became an academic, rising to become professor and vice-principal at Edinburgh University, where she is currently an emeritus professor of politics.

However, her influence has reached far beyond academia, with roles on the steering group that set up procedures for the Scottish Parliament, as the first Scottish public services ombudsman – a position she held for two terms, from 2002 to 2009 – serving on the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council, the Committee on Standards in Public Life, as the first female general secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and, since 2013, as the chair of the Scottish Funding Council.

Presenting the award, Scotland’s Brexit minister, Mike Russell, described Brown as “one of the godmothers, the godmother, perhaps, of devolution, somebody who helped to shape the Scottish Parliament as we have it” and “an example to us all”.