Two award wins for Wakefield Council
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
The Council was awarded Best Performer in Environmental Health at the Association for Public Service Excellence Performance Networks Awards 2024 (APSE).
“Huge congratulations to the Environmental Health team for their dedicated work and commitment. It is great to have this recognition for this top performing team that are delivering excellent services.”
Cllr Jack Hemingway
Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment
The award recognises the high-quality customer services that the Environmental Health team deliver across all parts of the service and the important role they play in protecting public health and safety.
This includes food safety, workplace health and safety and community and environmental protection. The Service is also recognised for its work with local and national businesses as a Primary Authority advisor on regulatory compliance and the training, consultancy and advice services on first aid, food safety, allergens and health and safety. Here for Business - Wakefield Council
Michaela Raj won the Children and Young People’s Champion award at the Children and Young People Now Awards.
She was recognised as the creator and team manager of the Emotional Wellbeing Team for transforming the support available to children in and leaving care.
“Michaela’s relentless dedication and innovative vision have earned high praise from OFSTED, colleagues, and now, this prestigious award. She embodies what it means to champion children and young people, and we are so proud of her contributions.”
Cllr Margaret Isherwood,
Cabinet Member for Children and Young People
Michaela’s award recognises her commitment to ensuring children in care have timely access to therapeutic support and to expanding mental health services for care leavers.
She has also introduced Foster Carer Wellbeing Clinics, supporting carers’ emotional health to improve placement stability and therapeutic parenting. She has campaigned for improvements in the lives of children in care.
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At the APSE Performance Networks Awards 2024, the Council were also finalists in the refuse collection, street cleansing, parks and cemeteries categories.
The awards are specific to frontline services provided by UK local authorities. The awards are agreed by a panel of expert judges.
The award is the latest accolade for the Council’s Environmental Health team that this year won the Outstanding Environmental Health team award from The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH).
They also won the Improvement and Efficiency Social Enterprise (iESE) certificate of excellence for AllergyPAL (Precautionary Allergen Labelling). Alix Baker, Senior EHO in the commercial team, gained grant funding to build an online tool to help small businesses work through training on preventative allergen labelling.