NHS heroes praised at Unsung Hero Awards

Recognised for their creative campaigns and quirky social media tactics, North West Ambulance Service’s (NWAS) Communications Team has been celebrated at the Unsung Hero Awards 2020.

Taking place at The Hilton Hotel, Manchester on February 28 2020, the Unsung Hero Awards were exclusively for non-medical, non-clinical NHS staff and volunteers whose achievements go above and beyond in support of the National Health Service.

With tough competition from Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, the team took home the award in a new category for 2020, NHS Communications.

Recognised for “launching successful campaigns that are set to make a positive difference to both staff and the general public’s lives”, the judges’ comments reflected on the team’s winter campaign which made people aware of actions they could take to stay well and what to do when needing help.

The campaign used popular phrases and cheeky acronyms such as ‘fake news’ and ‘WTF – ways to fail’ to grab attention and highlight real-life examples of people who had used 999 inappropriately.

Working on all aspects of communications, the team is also responsible for the trust’s press office and an out of hours service as well as internal and external communications, public affairs, stakeholder and community engagement, FOI requests, videography, social media and the trust’s web and intranet content.