Somerset’s children’s community nursing colleagues win NHS leadership awards

Three colleagues from our children’s community and specialist nursing team have cause for celebration after they scooped special NHS England awards and recognition for showing fantastic leadership.

Andre Clinchant, the team’s manager, won his award in the community leadership category, for the work he’s done to support the team to grow and achieve excellent care and outcomes for the families they serve.

And senior community healthcare assistant, Clare Newington, was highly commended for the compassion she shows to help make the last days special for children who are nearing the end of their lives.

Dawn Bradley (pictured middle in the photo to the right), our lead respiratory clinical nurse specialist, also was a finalist for patient-centred innovation for the excellent work she’s done on developing and leading on our Somerset paediatric virtual ward.

Having trained in Great Ormond Street Hospital, Andre began working for our trust in 1993, taking on various roles, including on the children’s ward at Musgrove Park Hospital, before he moved over to children’s community nursing in about 2000, where he was a specialist oncology nurse.

He took over the leadership of our community nursing team in 2006, and has been in the role ever since.

“NHS England South West has been holding these awards for about five years, and in previous years they’ve focused mainly on primary care nurses,” he says. “This year though, they expanded the remit to include community nursing – not just children’s, but adults too.

“They did a great job in pushing out the advert to get people to get nominating, so I put forward Clare (among others), and unbeknownst to me, Dawn also put in an award nomination for me!

“The awards event itself was held at Exeter Chiefs Rugby Club’s Sandy Park and it was a really large gathering, with professionals from as far north as Gloucestershire, as far south as Cornwall, and across to Dorset taking part – a huge amount of competition.

“Clare, Dawn and I were shortlisted into the final five or six, and we were surprised and super thrilled with our awards and becoming finalists!

“To be honest when they began reading out all the other nominations, I was like ‘nope, I’m not going to win this’, so I was a bit taken aback when they shouted out my name!

“It was a real surprise to have won the award, and although I’m not one for big fanfares, it felt really nice as I’ve done this job for a long time and that bit of recognition is really lovely to have.

“A leader can’t lead without a fantastic team behind them, and I certainly have that here – they’re truly amazing professionals.”

In her nomination for Andre, Dawn says that Andre has led our children’s community nurse and specialist nurse team through significant amounts of change in the last year, with many challenges along the way.

“There have been periods of time where we were significantly short-staffed, however, Andre supported us, going above and beyond in his efforts throughout this process, often taking on additional tasks.

“He has been very 'hands-on' with the many challenges faced, and supported each and every individual colleague as much as he can, while he continues to be pulled in many directions from the other services he supports.

“Andre is not only an amazing leader, but a kind and compassionate individual who’s always striving to help others and makes himself available to listen even when the pressures are mounting.

“He has given us great guidance and support, with not only keeping the many services we provide going, but also he values and supports nurses to lead on projects to make change happen. He has led on service improvements to make us a lead provider and has enabled the expansion of our children’s community specialist nurse team.

“Andre continues to provide a supportive working environment, often sharing positive feedback to others but not always receiving the recognition for his work, therefore I thought it was important to share the impact he has by nominating him for an award.”

Beginning her career on the children’s ward at a hospital in Worthing, Clare went on to take up a post as manager of a day nursery in Surrey, before moving down to the south west, where she has worked at our trust for five years as a healthcare assistant in our children’s community nursing service.

She says that winning a highly commended award in her category was such a proud moment for her. “I was recognised for the work I do with charities to make special memories for our palliative and oncology patients and their families,” she explains.

“One of the patients who I’ll never forget needed to go up to Great Ormond Street Hospital for a procedure, and she had broken her iPad, which she used for both education and pleasure.

“She was under the care of our palliative team, so I contacted a charity that I work really closely with, explaining the circumstances of this child, and they managed to get an iPad sent to her home address within about three days before she went for treatment in London. The family was so grateful, and it was incredible all round.

“My highly commended award was for a database of charities that my colleagues and I have created to make it easier for our colleagues to access and find out what additional support and special wishes are available to children with life-limiting conditions.

“Our team secretaries, Kirstin Brunskill and Katie Hall, have worked hard to get this information on our colleague intranet and it just makes life so much easier for us all. I also work really closely with Rebecca Decarteret, my fellow senior healthcare assistant.”

Andre adds: “Clare was so instrumental in creating this database of charities, which is so helpful for when any of us need support for the families we care for.

“In the old days there used to be paper directories that we could look in for help but those have long gone, so this is very much addressing a gap in the market.

“Clare worked really hard with our oncology nurse specialist to create the database, and one of our students helped too – it was a great team effort.”

Dawn began her nursing career on the paediatric intensive care unit at Bristol Children’s Hospital, before moving over to children’s community nursing in 2007, where she worked at NHS Devon as a lead nurse for the children’s complex healthcare team.

In 2011 she took a post at our trust, where she now works as a lead respiratory clinical nurse specialist in our children’s community specialist nursing service.

She says: “Becoming a south west finalist is amazing recognition for the work I’ve done in developing the paediatric virtual ward in Taunton, as well as showcasing the great work that our children’s community nursing teams do.

“I’ve helped to highlight the growing importance of their role in providing high quality healthcare to children and young people with chronic illnesses and disabilities, closer to or in their own home.”

Well done to all three of our finalists Andre, Clare and Dawn!