Aberdeen City Council children’s services team scoops first prize at prestigious national awards
16 November 2018
Aberdeen City Council’s Integrated Children’s Services Partnership team was this week named Top Team in Scotland in the national Quality Improvement Awards 2018.
The Awards celebrate the collaborative work carried out by schools, health visitors, doctors, nurses, midwives, social workers, family services and anyone working to improve services for children across Scotland.
The Aberdeen team picked up the Top Team award on Tuesday 13 November at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow for their multi-agency approach to improving family support services in Aberdeen.
After an inspection in children’s services identified that only 55% of families were offered an appropriate support service within 30 days, a multi-agency improvement team was developed in Aberdeen with the aim of increasing the figure to 80%.
As a result, 76% of families now receive support offers within 30 days with continued improvement and collaboration work taking place across the city to establish this collaborative way of working.
Councillor John Wheeler, Education Operational Delivery Convener said: “Many congratulations to our Integrated Children’s Services Partnership team on such a fantastic achievement and well-deserved national recognition. By initiating a programme of substantial improvement through collaborative work they have gone a long way in helping us achieve better outcomes for children and their families.
“Congratulations to the team for being shortlisted in the Excellence for QI in Early Years category as well.”
Sacha Will, ACC Improvement Programme Manager, said “I am delighted that our collaborative approach to improvement has been recognised by winning the Quality Improvement Award for Top Team. This work means more families in Aberdeen are being provided with support, at home, when they need it so that they can provide their children with the best start in life.”
The awards were open to those delivering quality improvement work through the Maternity and Children’s Quality Improvement Collaborative (MCQIC), run by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative (CYPIC).
Photograph shows the winning Aberdeen team (L-R) Melanie McAllion, Lorraine Duncan, Lucy Urasa-Skirba, Eleanor McEwan, Sharon Skene, Jenny Adie and Sacha Will along with (far right) BBC newsreader Catriona Shearer who was MC at the award ceremony.