After attending one of our awards writing training courses for NHS Employers, South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board’s programme director for strategy and people, Brigitte Kaviani, knew her team would benefit from the training too.
“Having entered lots of awards with very little success, I used what I learned on the NHS Employers course to write three award entries, and all of them won! Combined with the information from Louise’s book, it was clear our chances were much improved, and I wanted the team to be able to write their own award entries too,” says Brigitte.
Adapted training demystifies writing awards for everyone
In October 2023, we delivered our half-day training course on all things winning award entries to a room of 20 people from South Yorkshire’s Integrated Care Board. A further two virtual training sessions covered another 40 people. Attendees spanned HR, operations and finance, and were keen to understand more about how awards could be something to take advantage of.
We delivered our standard course with small adjustments to make it focused on the health sector. Having course content that’s largely developed means clients save money versus having something truly bespoke. And making changes to fit the sector and people’s specialisms – included in the cost – means we always keep the content relevant to those in the room.
The training covered when to enter an award, and, crucially, when not to, plus a framework for combining a strong story with impactful data in the award entry itself and tips on how to actually write the award. Attendees left the training confidently able to identify the right awards for them, and with a framework for writing better entries.
The ICB’s results speak for themselves.
“Since having the awards training, we have entered 11 awards, been shortlisted 10 times and brought home seven trophies. I’m so proud that we’ve won awards for our organisation and team’s work, but also colleagues have won individual awards,” Brigitte adds.
“Even being shortlisted comes with plenty of benefits, from team profile to morale, so we’ve had incredible value from a modest investment in training people.”
Since the training, the South Yorkshire ICB team and its people have had success in: