ADPH Awards 2024

CMOs’ National Impact Award – for a DPH in recognition of the impact they have had since starting the role. This award is supported by the CMOs of all four nations.

Shortlisted nominees:

• Lisa McNally, DPH Worcestershire
• Rachel Flowers, Former DPH Croydon
• Trudi Grant, DPH Somerset

Winner: Trudi Grant

Trudi is the longest serving DPH in the South West and has consistently advocated for system change to tackle inequality.

After leading the public health response to the Somerset floods in 2013/14, she informed the English National Study of Flooding and Health, and also contributed to the 2021 Annual Report ‘Health In Coastal Communities’.

Trudi also led her area’s response to Covid-19, navigating the challenges that were presented professionally, and with a passion that mobilised community action.

Trudi has since been instrumental in developing and securing the NIHR Somerset Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) which is working to develop a culture of research to provide evidence-based initiatives to improve public health.

This award recognises a DPH for demonstrating or championing innovative practice within thier organisation.

Shortlisted nominees:

• Kate Blackburn, DPH Wiltshire
• Sandra Husbands, DPH Hackney & City of London
• Trudi Grant, DPH Somerset

Winner: Kate Blackburn

Kate has been integral to the development and success of Community Conversations, a long-term programme focusing on the impact of social environments on health. The programme aims to strengthen relationships and build trust by collaborating with colleagues, partners, and local communities to tackle the multiple inequalities facing Wiltshire’s most deprived communities.

Kate is courageous, curious, creative, and kind, will challenge bias and the status quo, and always leads by example. She is passionate about enabling and supporting people to thrive and has worked tirelessly to support and grow both the team and programme.

For example, it was thanks to Kate’s vision and oversight that two residents from a marginalised community were recruited as permanent members of Wiltshire’s public health team. They offer a wealth of insight and have contributed to the successful design and implementation of health improvement services within their community, reminding us all that employing individuals with lived experience provides enormous value.

Kindly sponsored by Solutions4Health

This award recognises a DPH for leading a successful partnership with a sector or organisation.

Shortlisted nominees:

• Helen Atkinson, DPH Portsmouth
• Margaret Jones, DPH Sefton
• Susan Webb, DPH NHS Grampian

Winner: Helen Atkinson

Helen forges highly effective relationships, is valued and respected amongst a wide range of partners, and consistently demonstrates the value of a Public Health approach, working in partnership with compassion, optimism, and courage. Helen’s current Portsmouth place leadership role for ‘Health and Care Portsmouth’ is just one of many examples of her inspirational systems leadership approach and talent in partnership working. Helen has a tremendous ability to navigate complex situations, build a shared belief, and form relationships based on trust and mutual respect and passionately advocates for ensuring challenges are addressed with an emphasis on local inequalities. A shining characteristic of Helen’s partnership working is that she always puts people at the heart of her practice making them feel valued, empowered and encouraged.

Kindly sponsored by the Faculty of Public Health and the Royal Society for Public Health

This award is for an ADPH mentor who has shown dedication and commitment to mentoring as part of the ADPH mentoring scheme.

Shortlisted nominees:

• Dagmar Zeuner, ADPH Alumni
• Lincoln Sargeant, DPH Torbay
• Will Maimaris, DPH Haringey

Winner: Lincoln Sargeant

Lincoln is one of our longest serving mentors and, since 2017, has been matched six times, most recently this year. In the words of some of his mentees, Lincoln is very supportive, approachable, genuinely interested, and provides invaluable insight and advice drawn from his own experiences. His mentees have found their sessions incredibly helpful and have carried forward his tips into their own practice.

Kindly sponsored by OHID

This award is for a public health team who have established effective ways to improve practice.

Shortlisted nominees:

• Cardiff and the Vale Public Health Team
• Barking & Dagenham Health Protection Team
• Royal Borough of Kingston Public Health and Resettlement & Integration Team

Winner: Royal Borough of Kingston Public Health and Resettlement & Integration Team

During Covid-19, the teams built on learning from previous refugee and migrant needs assessments so that information and advice continued to be available. They also worked closely with voluntary sector partners to support bespoke engagement and communication activities, providing regular online sessions to support partners to share information with their service users.

In Spring 2022, the two teams set up a welcome centre for people from Ukraine to provide face to face advice and to support vulnerable migrants and refugees. Over 600 people from Ukraine have been welcomed through the centre and supported to access health services, key public health messages, school places and employment. The centre has had a huge impact and enhanced the health and wellbeing of hundreds of vulnerable residents. By working so closely together, both teams have learned new ways of working and will continue to work in partnership across the council, with the NHS and the Voluntary and Community Sector to innovate to improve health and wellbeing.

This award is kindly sponsored by the National Institute for Health and Care Research

This award is for a public health team who have worked exceptionally well together to improve public health outcomes in their area.

Shortlisted nominees:

• Dorset Public Health Team
• Lothian Public Health Intelligence Team
• Richmond and Wandsworth Public Health Team

Winner: Dorset Public Health Team

Over the years, the team has delivered integrated behaviour change support to help over 50,000 people quit smoking, lose weight, be more active and reduce drinking, through Live Well Dorset, with take up of the programme greatest in the region’s most deprived areas. The team also lead the prevention at scale programme in Dorset building prevention capacity and capability in the NHS.

They have always looked for innovative approaches to delivery, for example by creating an integrated community based sexual health service. This year the team has delivered a digital Swap2Stop offer delivering nearly 13 thousand vape starter packs, contributing significantly to work to hit the SmokeFree 2030 target early.

Next year, the team will be disaggregating into two new teams, and we hope that this award helps celebrate a decade of demonstrable impact on public health outcomes, development of innovative services, and a strong, supportive team culture.

This award is kindly sponsored by Public Health Jobs

This award is for a DPH and their team for undertaking public health research, or using research evidence in an innovative way, to inform decision making in their organisation.

Shortlisted nominees:

• Bimpe Oki and the Lambeth Public Health Team
• Darrell Gale and the East Sussex Public Health Team
• Craig Blundred and the Hartlepool Public Health Team

Winner: Bimpe Oki and the Lambeth Public Health Team

The team’s commitment to research-driven practices is demonstrated through a key initiative designed to assess the current research experiences of staff, identifying gaps in research experience and working to enhance research capacity within the organisation, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

Supported by the Lambeth NIHR HDRC, the team also work with King’s College London and have supported a study focused on promoting mental health and community wellbeing, particularly within racially minoritised groups. The team has also hosted King’s College students as interns, which has significantly expanded the scope of research activities and provided invaluable experience for students while contributing to the evaluation of major community initiatives. These internships have brought fresh perspectives and additional learning and development to ongoing research and evaluation efforts.

This award is kindly sponsored by UK Prevention Research Partnership

This award is for a DPH who has made a significant contribution to our work.

Shortlisted nominees:

• Alison Challenger, DPH West Sussex
• Gerry Taylor, DPH Sunderland
• Helen Atkinson, DPH Portsmouth

Winner: Helen Atkinson

Helen has worn many hats on behalf of ADPH over her career, including as a Council rep, SLI Programme Board Member and Board member. After stepping down from Board in 2019, she kindly stepped back up to sit on the Board last year at short notice. Helen has also played an instrumental role in putting together our evidence for the Covid-19 Public Inquiry.  Helen is always incredibly generous with her time and happy to give advice and help steer our work with compassion, patience and good cheer!

This award is for an Alumni who has made a significant contribution to our work.

Shortlisted nominees:

• Dr Helen Walters, ADPH Alumni
• Thara Raj, ADPH Alumni

Winner: Helen Walters

Helen is a former DPH who now works for NIHR. She is an active member of our Data, Research, and Intelligence PAG and ensures we maintain a good working relationship with NIHR, since HDRCs are newly established and so active in data and research. Helen is great at switching between her former DPH hat, and current NIHR hat, and even facilitated a PAG meeting last year when the new batch of HDRCs were announced.