Leading and inspiring

For individuals in leadership or managerial roles who have led and inspired their team, through good communication and providing opportunities to develop and contribute to improvements.

Carol Paton, winner of the 2011 Staff Recognition Awards for leading and inspiring, with Oxleas Chair Dave Mellish

Winner: Carol Paton

Carol was nominated by the trust’s Medical Director with support from several clinical directors and doctors across the trust. He said Carol has “contributed tremendously to the quality of care Oxleas delivers to service users in a number of ways.” He lists several innovative tools that she has developed to support clinicians and inform service users. These include the pharmacy newsletter, pharmacy advice line, pharmacy clinics and also the trust intranet pages where there is a lot of useful information for staff to give to service users about medications.

The nomination praised the way she collaborates effectively with staff from other professions; how she supports practice in line with guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE); the audits she champions which have led to improvements in the quality of patient care; and her commitment to research and learning. Carol is highly regarded as a leader in her field internationally.

“Mrs Paton sits on a number of quality related groups and boards in the trust and continues to contribute to the education and learning of our local partners especially GPs. Her message is simple, clear and concise and always well received.”

Dorothy Pilling with Dave Melish, Oxleas Chair

Dorothy Pilling at IndigO2, with Dave Melish

Highly commended: Dorothy Pilling

Dorothy joined CAMHS three years ago as the Operational Manager. She was nominated for four main reasons: leading and inspiring staff; her continuous commitment to patients, staff and the organisation and high standards of care; her approach to partnership working; and her approach to service users.

“Since taking up her post, Dorothy has taken forward the change programme through her tenacity and genuine and fair approach to staff. She is a very skilful communicator, helping staff to understand why they have to do something, getting them on-side so they own the need to comply with the required standards. This has led to continuous improvement in numerous aspects of clinicians’ practice. With the staff group, Dorothy conveys that she genuinely cares about the welfare and development of each individual whilst being firm and clear about the expectations placed on them. She has earned the respect of the staff group who feel that she is working with them and understands the challenges they face. Therefore she provides an inspiring role model for staff as she is focussed on continuous improvement in standards of care, whilst genuinely supporting staff in the process.”

She has led improvements in care planning within CAMHS services across Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich.

Commended: Dr Nikki Jeffcote

Nikki was nominated by two colleagues who thought the trust should recognise the huge commitment and work she has put in over the past four years to develop the William Morris Centre and the Douglass House Project. These services work with people with a diagnosis of personality disorder. Their work is described as “the cutting edge of community psychotherapy.”

“Nikki is not only the hardest working and most dedicated leader I have ever known or worked for, she manages to balance the drive to get things done and take the service forward with always being available to support every member of the team and listen to our views or concerns.”

“Nikki goes way beyond what anyone could expect from one person. She manages a part time outpatient service, while simultaneously managing a residential unit for severe personality disordered forensic clients.”

“As a supervisor Nikki is fantastic. I always feel listened to, supported and that I am learning from any mistakes that I make, which she is able to communicate in an empathetic and constructive way.”