Niamh Buckley
Nominated by: Chloe Clarke
Department: Childrens Services
Reason for nomination:
I nominate Niamh Buckley, Practice Supervisor of the CS NE-BOL Bolsover Team, for the Employee of the Year Award due to her meeting all of the values stated above. Niamh has been in the role since it began in the 2018 restructure and continues to inspire the team with her work ethic, approachability, and knowledge. She problem-solves and is fair, no matter if you are part of her team or not as she will always help or offer a listening ear. She is resourceful and has good relationships with both internal teams and external colleagues with partner agencies such as schools and health. The team hold her in high regard and her excellent standards of work only encourage them to want to be the best they can be. She takes suggestions onboard and certainly takes the creative lead when it comes to team development and morale. I have seen Niamh progress in her career; she is a fantastic Social Worker, but I believe she really excels in being a Practice Supervisor because of her love for the job. She is thoughtful and makes everyone want to be a better person, she is the sunshine always!
Trudie Brown
Nominated by: Anonymous
Department: Adult Social Care and Health
Reason for nomination:
I am nominating Trudie Brown for this award because she always gives her position her all, she listens to any problems that arise and tackles them with open and honest communication all round. Trudie has helped to set up various initiatives within Live Life Better Derbyshire, such as Child's choice and School engagement with the healthier futures programme. As a manager she always takes time for every person that she manages and checks in regularly with them to make sure that they are ok in their role and that nothing could be changed to help make their role more manageable for that person. Trudie is always considerate of the needs of each individual and any accommodations they might need, and to make sure that all information that is produced is accessible to all.
Overall, in all my years of working I have not come across a harder working, more thoughtful and considerate manager ever.
Dale Crombie
Nominated by: Tracy Hartshorn
Department: Place
Reason for nomination:
Dale Crombie, who works on the out of hours highways team, is one of the nicest and hardest working people in Derbyshire County Council. He is a great favourite with Customer Care Assistants at Call Derbyshire because he is always unfailingly cheerful and helpful, and he takes ownership of the problems that are put to him. It's always a pleasure when we realise it's Dale answering our calls, because we know that he will help to solve the problem.
He deserves recognition for his hard work and amiability with other colleagues. He's a true team player.
Emma Roberts
Nominated by: Sandy McKay
Department: Corporate Services and Transformation
Reason for nomination:
I nominate Emma Roberts, Derbyshire County Council’s Employee Counsellor. She provides an excellent service to employees and is always focused on their needs. Emma demonstrates exceptional care and commitment and has proved a tremendous impact on her clients, truly helping them whilst always appreciating and welcoming the diversity of her clients. Emma always shows compassion and empathy for everyone's situation in a non-judgemental way and has a genuine concern for everyone whom she meets. She has, through her service, helped relieve distress and taught her clients how to build resilience, ultimately improving the lives of many employees.
Emma is a wonderful motivator always encouraging others to reach their goals and has developed a Student Counselling Practice programme, hoping to inspire others to become the future counsellors in an area of work she is so very passionate about. With her magnetic personality and frequently admired professional competence, she exceptionally delivers a very valuable internal service contributing to the wellbeing offer for employees.
Louise Thorpe
Nominated by: Anonymous
Department: Childrens Services
Reason for nomination:
I am nominating this person because as Practice Supervisor for a team that is understaffed, this person has ensured that her team are not overwhelmed, not alone and that cases and not left and ignored. Louise has ensured that if something cannot be completed by a duty worker, she herself has completed visits and meetings, meaning that timescales are not being missed and the child does not feel missed or left. The team are overwhelmed with cases at this time due to lack of social workers but Louise has gone above and beyond to acknowledge the hard work and dedication by all workers in her team. Louise does not ever appear stressed and always has a calm approach encouraging her team to think things through so they do not become overwhelmed and stressed, this is a very important skill for the mental wellbeing of the workers and the moral in the team. Our team manager is currently off long term sick, and whilst we had a temporary covering manager, Louise has 'held the fort' and taken on a lot more responsibility. During this period Derbyshire County Council has began to experience financial difficulty leaving Louise to really consider what payments are really required and what can be shared with carers, other organisations or even put on hold, this financial difficulty has also been the reason of the loss of some social workers in the team, meaning the short staffed issue makes things a little harder for everyone else.
Due to Louise's professional, kind and calm approach, this has meant that 1 social worker has retracted their 'notice' and has remained in the team and that everyone else is comfortable in their role and are not feeling the full pressure they usually would in these circumstances.
I have worked with Louise for many years and these positive characteristics she has have been clear throughout, however, in more recent times with difficulties faced, these have been obvious to all and I really feel she deserves this recognition, because a simple pat on the back is just not enough.
Kerry Bullen
Nominated by: Lucy Billington
Department: Adult Social Care and Health
Reason for nomination:
Kerry has worked as a Health and Wellbeing Officer for almost 2 years and has excelled in the role. Kerry background was working with adults with learning disabilities and came to the team with a wealth of knowledge about person centred care. Kerry has also completed and passed a diploma in health and wellbeing coaching as part of her HAWO role. Kerry took on this challenge with enthusiasm, courage and dedication and consistently improved throughout the course, so much so that the lecturer particularly commented on her outstanding progress.
Kerry has gone from strength to strength in her role of health and wellbeing officer, she has been working collaboratively with the community of Erewash and alongside people to support them to advocate, for themselves and to improve their lives. One such case, has been that Kerry has supported a person to begin to present in community groups about their own mental health. This has been an innovative piece of work and that truly exemplified community based/asset based values. - this work has just concluded in Feb 2024. Kerry has been through personal challenges over the last few years also, which sadly included the loss of her beloved partner and other health problems. However, Kerry has shown resilience, personal drive and a commitment to her work, using her life experience as fuel to become even better and to serve the people of Derbyshire better. Kerry is an asset to the council and to Public Health, Kerry showcases what real hard work looks like and has a collaborative, forward thinking, inclusive approach. I am proud she is part of the Health and Wellbeing team and hope that she continues to excel in her role.
Dale Crombie
Nominated by: Anonymous
Department: Place
Reason for nomination:
I am nominating this person as they are always really helpful, full of knowledge and always happy to deal with the calls coming in. This person is always super friendly and nice to chat with and really easy to get along with. They are the person I always wish is on shift during these times as I know things will always be dealt with not only quickly and efficiently but it's never a nuisance or pain and they are always willing to help with any questions even if it isn't directly their job to do so.
From the very first time I spoke to this person, they we're delightful to deal with and it hasn't changed since then. They are a real credit to have on the team and I hope their hard work and kind nature is appreciated by all.
Steve Wade
Nominated by: Lisa Brewin
Department: Corporate Services and Transformation
Reason for nomination:
Steve Wade is an absolute legend. I can honestly say we would be in complete turmoil without him. Nothing is too much trouble. Ever. He recognises the urgency of the issues raised for IT support in legal and always, always offers to help (even to his own detriment) - Steve was instrumental in fixing our PDF bundling error before Xmas which prevented us from generating court bundles and placed us in breach of court directions. He worked with colleagues late into the night in his own time to find a solution. Steve is extremely modest and a team player so it is highly likely he will wish to decline any recognition personally. Nonetheless I still wish to nominate him as whilst I recognise that he does work as part of a wider team it is my experience (and that of colleagues in legal) that I think I still need to nominate him for another year because of his 'above and beyond' approach.
Steve Wade
Nominated by: Anonymous
Department: Corporate Services and Transformation
Reason for nomination:
This person is part of the ICT services and is one of the most helpful people I have ever met. He goes above and beyond what is expected and his customer service is incredible. He treats everyone with the utmost respect when dealing with enquiries, he doesn't make you feel like you don't know what you are doing and carefully explains the situation and is so motivated to solve the problem and try different things to get an end outcome. Genuinely a great representation to Derbyshire and should be proud of the support he gives to all its employees.
Caroline Atkin
Nominated by: Anonymous
Department: Corporate Services and Transformation
Reason for nomination:
Caroline is a great Team Leader, who, despite my Disabilities, is constant and fair. She makes sure I (& the rest of the Team) understand everything, and is very supportive. If there's a day or several when the Work Laptop (that was issued to me), with SAP refused to work, one of my colleagues will help me out, by looking up the relevant information for me.
Carolyn Swift
Nominated by: Anonymous
Department: Corporate Services and Transformation
Reason for nomination:
Carolyn Swift has worked at the Chesterfield Register Office for more than 20 years, during that time she has risen from learning her skills as a Deputy Registrar to now the Senior Registrar in the team. Her knowledge of the legal framework that Registration works within and her fantastic customer service have been an inspiration and education to all new starters for years now. She has mentored and encouraged all new members of staff to be the best that they can be and she personally works by the motto that people should be " lifted up" both in the workplace and in life.
As part of the job Carolyn regularly deals with distressed families whose loved ones have had to have their deaths investigated by HM Coroner and she is so compassionate and caring whilst maintaining professionalism and great customer service. I am proud to call her my colleague of 17 year and she is a guiding light in our team. Her hard work, dedication and professionalism deserves to be recognised.
Casey Monk
Nominated by: Anonymous
Department: Childrens Services
Reason for nomination:
I am nominating this individual for the employee of the year award. They have shown that they really care about team members and stakeholders through stepping up over the last 6 months where they have learnt and embraced many new skills that will enable them to further progress within the council. Throughout this time they covered elements of new processes that they had never undertaken before and did this without direction but through their own productiveness. Having seen this person face to face in the last week I can see that this opportunity has positively impacted and they have grown in confidence.
David Ford
Nominated by: Julian Gould
Department: Place
Reason for nomination:
David always goes above and beyond to deliver the Reactive Highway Maintenance Function for Derbyshire County Council ensuring that our residents and communities can travel safely on our Highway Network. In times of our emergency weather related responses it is David that leads the operational response in very challenging conditions and usually in unsociable hours. It is also David that coordinates our reactive gangs in our pothole response. Always willing to go the extra mile, striving to deliver an exemplary service and picking up additional duties, you may have seen him on the television or heard him on the radio! Derbyshire would really notice the difference without the dedication and commitment that Dave gives every day.
Diane Richens
Nominated by: Lyndsey Coupe
Department: Corporate Services and Transformation
Reason for nomination:
I am proud to nominate Diane Richens for her exceptional contributions since she joined my team around a year ago. She is always the first person to offer to help other teams whilst also ensuring our teams work is completed to the highest of standards. Diane is forward thinking and will liaise all the time with our team managers to check on their recruitment needs whilst also checking how they are doing as she genuinely cares about people. Diane is extremely proactive and doesn’t just take things at face value, she will research and ask questions to ensure that Derbyshire County Council remains compliant, in order to reach successful conclusions. A specific time that I believe makes Diane a good nominee for this award is when I was off work seriously mentally ill last October, and Diane not only covered my work, but she would check on me all the time and offered a friendly and supportive ear which helped much more than she will ever know. Diane made my transition back to work much easier than I had feared. Diane is really a positive person when it comes to the work that Derbyshire County Council does, and even when others are negative or feeling frustrated with aspects of work, she brings everyone’s mood up, and really contributes to a better atmosphere in the teams she works with. I have constant comments from managers about how Diane is so helpful, knowledgeable, caring, and supportive, and I honestly don’t know how we would manage without her in the team. Diane rarely mentions her successes or takes credit for anything, and she really does deserve it which is why I think she makes her the Employee of the Year in my opinion.
Gail Lane
Nominated by: Anonymous
Department: Childrens Services
Reason for nomination:
Gail began working with children in receipt of EOTAS (education Otherwise Than at a School) late 2022. Since then, she has single handed created the EOTAS Service to ensure the most vulnerable children in our area are in receipt of quality education packages. She has remains calm when challenged and protected the council’s reputation at times of great scrutiny. Furthermore, she never fails to go above and beyond and continually delivers an outstanding service.
Gail has both identified challenges and threats faced by the council and works tirelessly to find solutions and pathways forward for both colleagues and service users. More importantly, she always achieves this with a smile and an infectious positive attitude, no matter life throws at her. She's an amazing colleague, and amazing professional and most of all, an amazing person.
Jackie Goodwin
Nominated by: Anonymous
Department: Adult Social Care and Health
Reason for nomination:
Jackie Goodwin is a prime example of an employee who embodies the criteria for nomination. Her dedication to delivering excellent care and customer service is evident in her consistent efforts to go above and beyond for our clients. For instance, there was a time when a client with special needs required assistance beyond our standard service offerings. Despite the challenges, Jackie took it upon herself to coordinate additional support from community resources, ensuring the client received the care they needed.
Moreover, Jackie's positive attitude and supportive nature have made her a valuable asset to our team. She consistently uplifts her colleagues and fosters a welcoming atmosphere, contributing to a positive work environment. Her supportive demeanour not only enhances team morale but also translates into better customer experiences.
In terms of resource management, Jackie has demonstrated an exceptional ability to optimize our existing resources to meet customer needs efficiently. For example, during a period of increased demand, she implemented a more streamlined scheduling system that maximized staff availability without compromising quality of care.
Jackie's performance is consistently excellent, and she often surpasses expectations. Her commitment to delivering unexpected acts of kindness or service has left a lasting impact on our clients. Whether it's remembering a client's birthday with a small gift or taking the time to listen to their concerns, Jackie consistently exceeds what is required of her role.
Furthermore, Jackie's actions consistently align with our company's values and commitments. She embodies integrity, compassion, and professionalism in all her interactions, reflecting positively on our organization.
Overall, Jackie Goodwin's nomination is well-deserved, as her specific achievements and exceptional performance within her day-to-day role have made her a standout member of our team.
John Dawes
Nominated by: Allen Shepherd
Department: Corporate Services and Transformation
Reason for nomination:
John joined the Council in February 2023 and has made a real positive difference to the Estates Team and brought with him many years of Commercial Property Experience and Professionalism.
John spends time to help and impart his knowledge on his colleagues, which enables them to learn and develop. He has undertaken many additional projects and is also prepared to assist when asked.
His can do attitude and calm and approachable persona is vital to ensure that problems are resolved without friction or unnecessary stress and that results and targets are achieved.
He has delivered some impressive Capital Receipts and contributed to the council's Revenue Savings Target, which is vital in these financially difficult times.
John is a real asset to the Estates Team and is a well liked, respected and a highly regarded team player.
These Capital Receipts and Revenue Savings will cut the help reduce the financial deficit and help pay for the delivery of essential services across the county.
Michael Oxley
Nominated by: Jodie Robinson
Department: Childrens Services
Reason for nomination:
Michael Oxley is a credit to Derbyshire County Council. I started my employment in April 2023 - Since then he has been incredibly supportive. He has guided me through, supported, included and encouraged me. Not only is he a supportive kind colleague the work he does for the service is truly outstanding and I aspire to be the same. He is truly committed to the job and ensuring everyone's voice is heard.
Owen Brown
Nominated by: Anonymous
Department: Place
Reason for nomination:
Owens approach to work is commendable. Owen is eager to learn and uses the things he has learned wisely in his work. Owen is a very capable engineer and is able to look at problems holistically, taking into account, limitations, threats and opportunities and balancing these with the needs of the client, the public and other stakeholders. Owen does not shy away from challenges; he embraces them, and his enthusiasm is very refreshing and noteworthy. Owens communication skills are exemplary, he is happy to contribute in meetings, be that team meetings or meetings with stakeholders where he often provides technical input and constructively adds to the discussion. During his time within the Land Reclamation section Owen has been the lead engineer and designed for two ongoing projects and the main designer for the structure’s elements of the Little Eaton Greenway, at all times being conscious of financial implications and life costs of the project.
I am nominating Owen because his combination of skills, abilities, enthusiasm, professionalism, personality and demeanour are exemplary and deserve recognition. Owen is an apprentice, but he works at a much higher level that that title would suggest.
Serrena Burton
Nominated by: Anonymous
Department: Adult Social Care and Health
Reason for nomination:
Serrena Burton is so kind, caring and understanding. She will go through things at great length multiple times and is always there to assist when needed (in and out of work, even after moving teams and roles). Serrena has been amazing and so supportive throughout my whole journey within Childrens Services and is always there when I need help or support on a job, inside and outside of work.
Shauni Edkins
Nominated by: Anonymous
Department: Corporate Services and Transformation
Reason for nomination:
Shauni has been a huge support to me since I joined my role, and she is always very professional in her approach. Most recently, she has been under a lot of pressure, as have the whole of Property Services, in ensuring that the council's savings plan can be met. However, she is always so supportive of Childrens Services, and challenges her managers when appropriate to ensure services do have their voice's heard. She has been extremely influential with the creation of the new Chesterfield hub site - The Quad, and it is a credit to her organisational skills, communication skills and hard work that the new site is so likely to be a success! She deserves recognition for her efforts as she has been under some extreme pressure over the past 12 months and yet the new Quad site is likely to open on time and be a huge benefit to so many staff in the Chesterfield area. My team work alongside her team on an almost daily basis, and i believe that we are very lucky to have her!
Steve Wade
Nominated by: Sam Chapman
Department: Corporate Services and Transformation
Reason for nomination:
Steve Wade is someone I've been working along side for around 4 years now and since day 1 he's demonstrated an unyielding ability to put the customer first. He works tirelessly to not only provide a professional service with his customers and colleagues but fully embodies all tenets of the council in every action he takes.
Steve is approachable, knowledgeable, professional and a true leader. He's fair when it comes to making judgements and demonstrates an incredible working knowledge of the council and it's processes which he applies to all areas of his service delivery ensuring that all council services continue to run by always putting the customer and the councils requirements first.
"It'll wait until Monday" doesn't exist in this man's vocabulary.
He's supportive of his team, humble, positive and never fails to deliver a solution to problems while still being able to trim the fat where needed to ensure services run and approaches new challenges to ICT services with a complete can do attitude by learning new information, disseminating this to colleagues and other teams and working cross-team to again deliver a polished departmental solution.
Tom French
Nominated by: Adam Lathbury
Department: Place
Reason for nomination:
Tom French, the council’s Ecologist, was central in making the case for the requirement of a Natural Capital Strategy for Derbyshire. He was also responsible for driving forward the Strategy’s commissioning, as well as running the project, and ensuring that the final product of the commission is technically sound.
Natural Capital, in its most basic sense, is a list of the natural assets that make up the natural environment. The Natural Capital Strategy, through the widely understood UKHabs assessment, documents all the elements that make-up Derbyshire’s natural environment. This set of natural assets provides Derbyshire with a range of Ecosystem Services, from food product and building materials, through to carbon capture and the management of water runoff. The Natural Capital Strategy identifies what ecosystem services Derbyshire’s Natural Capital supports, and where these are located and where they need to be enhanced. It also explores the financial value of Derbyshire’s Natural Capital, and the financial value of the Ecosystem Services.
Everything that happens on the planet is a subset of Natural Capital and we totally rely on the ecosystem services it supports. Without these, there would be no food product, building material, or oxygen and carbon cycle. So, the Natural Capital’s improvement and careful stewardship, could not be more important. As we have also seen through the COVID pandemic, connections to the natural environment also provide health and wellbeing benefits.
The Natural Capital Strategy has put the council in a strong position, as the ‘Responsible Authority’, as identified by DEFRA, for the production of Derbyshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS). The Natural Capital Strategy provides a series of robust datasets as baseline evidence for the LNRS’s development.
Tom was central to the Natural Capital Strategy’s production.
Vincent Trussell
Nominated by: Eva White
Department: Corporate Services and Transformation
Reason for nomination:
Vincent Trussel, Finance Team - he goes above and beyond when answering queries around budgets, purchase orders, setting up packages of care and working with adult care social work/SCP colleagues to get the best service for Derbyshire County Council people.
Becky Wrath
Nominated by: Dawn Charlesworth
Department: Childrens Services
Reason for nomination:
I am pleased to nominate Becky Wrath for the Employee of the Year Award. I have known and worked with Becky for just under 1 year and have always found her dependable, efficient, and unfailingly punctual. In fact, I have never worked with a person who gives as much attention to detail as she does. Also, her willingness to take on additional work alongside her own role to ensure the young person in our care is supported, safeguarded, and cared for to an excellent standard.
Becky is always there for advice and support for not only myself but support for our young person, her presence has made a remarkable difference to not only The Elms but to the young person.
Her skills do not end with her Social care role, she also projects a warm, cheerful attitude to our young person.
I have seen her resolve conflicts and handle other difficult situations with remarkable patience and admirable tact. In the community
It is evident when seeing her in practice she loves her job and the young people she works with, she works hard, and always tries to support those around her. I believe these characteristics represent all that is good in any company, and I am pleased to nominate her for the honour of Employee of the Year.
Adam Rhodes
Nominated by: Anonymous
Department: Corporate Services and Transformation
Reason for nomination:
Adam Rhodes joined the Asset Management team as a technician a couple of years ago, and he has become an integral member of the team. I work alongside Asset Management regarding Childrens Services moves and Adam is always approachable, always makes himself available and is very committed to ensuring he completes every move to the best of his ability. He works long hours when needed to ensure all moves run smoothly, and he is a great communicator. He certainly makes our CS team moves easier! All colleagues within Asset Management are very hard working and dedicated, particularly under current budget control measures and they are all working towards some very strict and short deadlines. They all deserve an award! Adam, though, often works on tasks alongside his colleagues who are of higher grade than he is, but yet he does not complain and is always smiling. He is organised, punctual and he certainly is a credit to his team, he has received positive feedback on numerous occasions from CS teams that I have passed on to him and his manager.
Dave Chadwick
Nominated by: Annaliese Bedford
Department: Corporate Services and Transformation
Reason for nomination:
I am delighted to nominate Dave Chadwick from the van delivery service team at Derbyshire County Council for the High Performing Employee Award. Dave's exceptional dedication, professionalism, and supportive nature make him an outstanding contributor to our team.
Dave's nomination aligns perfectly with the criteria for this award. His commitment to excellence is evident in his day-to-day role, where he consistently goes above and beyond to ensure the success of the team.
For instance, Dave is a team-player, taking the initiative to communicate with colleagues whenever he stops at Borrowash Library, ensuring they have everything they need to perform their duties effectively. He is always flexible and willing to help, whether we need him to move items, deliver additional items or adjust his delivery time. He is mindful and considerate of his colleagues, thinking ahead to place heavy items at waist height so that staff do not injure themselves and always delivers items to a safe place. Staff, including myself, feel comfortable approaching him with enquiries due to his supportive, knowledgeable and welcoming attitude. He is always happy to resolve issues, whilst customers enjoy his polite and friendly demeanour. His professionalism, flexibility and willingness to assist others has significantly enhanced the quality of our service delivery at Borrowash Library.
Dave is proud of his work which is evident in the level of performance he consistently delivers. He understands the importance of his role and is always mindful of how his actions impact both ourselves, the customer and the image of Derbyshire County Council.
In conclusion, Dave Chadwick's outstanding qualities make him a deserving nominee. He is an invaluable asset to our team, embodying the values of Derbyshire County Council and is essential to our team being able to deliver a high level of customer service.
Deborah Rogers
Nominated by: Karen Day
Department: Childrens Services
Reason for nomination:
It is my honour to nominate Deborah Rogers for this award as over the 20 years that I have known her she has always offered exemplary customer service to the community she serves. She is proactive in meeting the needs of the whole community, often coming up with innovative ways to reach new learners and make use of scant resources. I have witnessed many occasions when her professional attitude in dealing with issues has upheld DCC and DACES' excellent reputation. The residents of Ashbourne and surrounding areas made the following comments to me recently. "Debbie is a credit to the council", "If it were not for Debbie I would be in a much worse place today", Deborah's compassion for all the learners and love for her job certainly shows", "I don't know how Debbie is so lovely and positive all the time". Others commented on how trustworthy, efficient and pleasant she is. She is supportive of colleagues at all levels and a pleasure to work alongside.
Ellie Tomlinson
Nominated by: Charlotte Hurst
Department: Childrens Services
Reason for nomination:
I am nominating Complaints Officer, Ellie Tomlinson for Employee of the Year.
Ellie has supported the feedback team responding to complaints, compliments, and representations for all of children’s services, dealing with difficult and high-profile complainants with professionalism and integrity.
The complaints which Ellie deals with involve child protection cases, police investigations and court decisions. She goes above and beyond within her role, is extremely conscientious and manages priorities and timescales well.
We have recently taken on new members within the team, and I have seen Ellie really grow in confidence and come into her own as she supports and mentors the new team.
The role of complaints officer is extremely challenging and relentless Ellie takes this in her stride, maintains patience and professionalism and manages to not let anything impact her, which certainly takes skills.
With these qualities and personal attributes, Ellie protects the reputation of the council by ensuring the national statutory guidance is followed. Ellie knows each section of the guidance and is extremely knowledgeable on how the complaints process should be followed to ensure the reputation of the local authority, ensures public confidence in us and with the local government ombudsman.
Ellie shares the values of the council and goes to great lengths to support service areas, colleagues, and senior members within the council.
It’s a pleasure to line manage Ellie. I’m certainly proud of how much I have seen Ellie grow over the last few years. I feel Ellie deserves employee of the year award as this is a hidden role.
Henry Roe
Nominated by: Amy Dillon
Department: Childrens Services
Reason for nomination:
I am nominating Henry for the Employee of the Year Award for the dedication, determination, and hard work he has demonstrated over the past 18 months in helping various services supporting families and vulnerable children.
Henry has worked closely with colleagues in a variety of services to help them to deliver new ways of working. He truly demonstrates that we cannot tackle complex problems on our own. Henry has been involved in the creation of a number of new web-based processes using the Corporate Granicus solution to enable parents, schools and professionals to interact with and submit information into Children Services. This work is supporting new initiatives and ways of working for areas such as Starting Point, Inclusion Panel, Temporary Provision Panel and CS ‘Home to School’ Transport. To achieve this, he has had to learn new technology where there is no previous experience within his team to lean on. Henry has needed to step outside his comfort zone and really communicate with colleagues. The results have been really appreciated by all services involved as well as external partners.
In addition to this Henry has developed skills in other new technologies such as Power BI where he has developed business intelligence solutions that really make a difference to teams supporting children and young people. These have included a new report on Employment, Entertainment and Chaperone Licences for the Education Welfare Service.
Finally Henry has really taken ownership of some statutory returns and given high levels of support during the recent ILACS inspection.
Jess Brown
Nominated by: Nicola Chambers and Alex Hood
Department: Adult Social Care and Health
Reason for nomination:
Jess is being nominated for the Employee of the Year Award to give us the opportunity to showcase her brilliance as a Grade 11 Social Worker. Jess’ consistent professional performance and personal qualities make her an asset to the team and organisation which should be celebrated. Jess is observed by her managers to be a dependable Social Worker who can be trusted with complex casework. Jess’ practice consistently promotes the values of Adult Care and the Social Work profession. Jess has a profound sense of social justice and advocates passionately for those she supports resulting in notable outcomes for clients. Jess’ written work, including Care Act Assessments and court statements, are of such high standard that we frequently use them as examples to demonstrate good quality work.
Jess builds meaningful relationships with clients and their families which allows her to adopt a strength-based approach to assessment and support planning. Jess is a great believer in promoting independence and autonomy, especially for those at risk of restrictions. Jess has an impressive knowledge of local resources and has built an effective professional network, both of which assist her in achieving the right support for the people and families she works with. Jess uses direct payments creatively to promote choice and control, often faced with limited resources but still achieving desired outcomes.
Jess has fulfilled the role of mentor to a student who has then been successful in securing an ASYE position in the team. Jess has been a superb role model and source of support, so credit is owed to Jess in contributing to such a successful placement and recruitment process. Jess is the ‘go to’ worker in the team because of her extensive knowledge and willingness to support others. It is a joy to work with Jess and we hope she realises how fantastic she is!
Kay Hitchcock and Bev Heinzman
Nominated by: Tina Bunting
Department: Place
Reason for nomination:
Kay Hitchcock and Bev Heinzman of the Extents Team deliver plans for enquiries involving skip and scaffold permit requests or reports of illegal skips and scaffolds. Ensuring the safety of the public.
Kevin Nicholson
Nominated by: Justine Spencer
Department: Place
Reason for nomination:
Nominating Kevin Nicholson in Countryside for Employee of the Year. Kevin is a longstanding member of the service who day in day out works tirelessly and with a heartfelt commitment to delivering the needs of the customers that visit and experience Shipley County Park. He's passionate about the park and the local community and has built up and gained the respect of volunteers that he supports and works with him too. A positive can-do attitude, displayed throughout incredible challenges with Covid the sheer magnitude of visitors using this valuable greenspace and in these times of austerity making the best use of resources, going above and beyond to maintain the site, the equipment and facilities at times single handed. Staff sickness and retirements have put additional pressures on him and yet he will always make time to support all his colleagues at the site. He's a shining example of a colleague that works collaboratively with the local police, the Woodland and Wildlife trusts and many others to build on the customer experience of the park.
Mark Haslam
Nominated by: Mark Hudson
Department: Place
Reason for nomination:
Mark has been in the Countryside Service for several years, having been recently promoted from a warden to a ranger and consistently working above and beyond the expectations of his role. He works flexibly across all our countryside sites across Derbyshire, delivering a high level of performance and always willing to go the extra mile to deliver a great service.
One of his standout qualities is his agility to take on any task required, adapting to changing conditions and unforeseen challenges, whether that's adverse weather, antisocial behaviour, wildlife emergencies or resource limitations. He is always prepared to put in the hard work and would never expect someone to have to do something which he wasn't prepared to do himself.
He is a great team player and is always there to support his colleagues, on occasion even outside of his working hours. Mark's empathetic nature makes him someone that the team can really rely on and turn to if they need a listening ear and unwavering support.
Suzanne Chasemore
Nominated by: Anonymous
Department: Place
Reason for nomination:
Suzanne Chasemore is the Library Assistant in Charge at Dronfield Library.
In March 2023 the heating for the library was condemned and since then the building has had no heating.
Throughout the summer months this was not a great problem but as autumn and winter arrived working conditions became extremely difficult.
Suzanne has managed and supported her team throughout what has been a very difficult situation. As winter got colder she discussed the situation with the team and arrangements were made for some staff, less able to manage the cold to work at different libraries. Other staff agreed that they wished to help maintain a service to the community of Dronfield and so agreed to carry on working at Dronfield on a reduced timetable.
The library has been operating on reduced opening hours since November to mitigate the adverse effects of working in near freezing temperatures.
Suzanne has had to deal with a very difficult situation supporting staff, managing the library, facilitating the necessary arrangements towards resolving the situation, and managing and dealing with complaints and comments from members of the public using the library.
All the team have had to work in freezing conditions whilst still maintaining a positive attitude and placing the needs of the customer over their own comfort, I feel that the responsibility of managing the situation, motivating and supporting her staff and showing admirable leadership should be recognised.
Tracie Bonnici
Nominated by: Zuzanna Forster-Fake
Department: Adult Social Care and Health
Reason for nomination:
I am nominating Tracie as employee of the year for both her support to colleagues and for her support of people with hearing and visual impairments in Derbyshire. Tracie is the senior practitioner of the Derbyshire Deaf Team and in this role she provides professional support to colleagues and a wealth of knowledge about specialist resources, support and equipment. This supports all members of the team to provide excellent service to the people of Derbyshire.
In addition to this, she supports the engagement with and advocates for people who do not always have their voices clearly heard through the attendance at events manning stalls to provide people with information and advice, coordinating social work 'surgery' sessions for the Deaf community, engaging with partner organisations and sharing information through our Facebook page. She is a trained assessor for working with people who are Deaf Blind and supports colleagues across the department with this client group. Most recently she is involved in planning, and will participate in a consultation event looking at supported housing for Deaf people, working in partnership with adult care commissioners, district councils and provider organisations to engage with people to inform future commissioning decisions and housing strategy. She shows daily passion for supporting people to have their voices heard and their rights advocated.