Regional Emerging Leader Award Rounds Off Successful Year For Lara

Being crowned as the region's Emerging Leader of the Year topped off a very successful year for Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust's (LCHS) Lara Murfet. 

Lara was the only nominee from Lincolnshire to scoop a prize in the finals of the East Midlands' NHS Recognition Awards, despite strong representation from the county across a number of categories.

The NHS Recognition Awards celebrate leaders at all levels and across all professions, especially those who have ultimately improved people's health and the public's experience of the NHS. 

Lara, who works countywide as an Organisational Development Programme Lead, said: "My role gives me the privilege of working with such a wide variety of teams and individuals across the organisation, right from newly established teams through to Board level. It is very humbling to have been nominated and is credit to the fantastic team around me - I am proud to have been recognised."

Lara was nominated for her 'drive and passion for development', which has supported transformation at LCHS for individual teams and the trust as a whole. She has led improvements to staff engagement, which have in turn been shared nationally due to the level of improvement when benchmarked against other organisations.

This was not the first award success for Lara and the Organisational Development Team this year, having also been recognised as winners of the Healthcare People Management Association (HMPA) OD Aston Award, LCHS's Team of the Year and shortlisted in the 2016 Engage Awards. They have also featured among NHS Employer's OD Superstars. 

LCHS Chief Executive Andrew Morgan said: "Congratulations and thank you to Lara, whose success is thoroughly deserved and testament to her commitment to our Organisational Development Team. Lara dedicates her time to supporting others to reach their full potential and this award is a very fitting reward for all of her hard work."
 
Also shortlisted for the East Midlands' NHS Recognition Awards for LCHS were Angela Shimada, an Advanced Practitioner Speech and Language Therapist based on the stroke unit at Lincoln County Hospital, for the Service Improvement and Innovation award and Head of Organisational Development Dusty Millar for the Leading and Developing People award. The trust's Clinical Assessment Service Leadership Team were shortlisted in the award for Leading Systems Transformation. 

For Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT), Zoë Rowe, Associate Director of Nursing and Quality, and Sandy Chambers, Health and Safety Advisor, were both shortlisted in the Inclusive Leader of the Year category, while the Eating Disorders Service featured in the Excellence in Patient Experience category.