Staff Achievement Awards 2013

BRENT STAFF ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS 2013

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FOREWORD

Dear colleague,

Dear colleague,

Welcome to the fourteenth Brent Staff Achievement Awards.

It is a pleasure to be part of these awards and to celebrate the passion and professionalism that staff demonstrate every day. It is also a pleasure to recognise members of staff who have dedicated a large chunk of their career to working for local government.

This year we have 12 colleagues each celebrating 25 years of service and three celebrating 40 years – altogether an amazing 420 years of service from 15 individuals. This is truly astonishing.

This year, supporting our residents through changes and cuts which impact on their personal budgets and the council’s funding has been incredibly challenging, which makes it all the more important to recognise the excellent work Brent staff do to support the lives of our residents.

Of course those receiving recognition tonight are a small number of Brent staff so I would like to thank everyone who works for Brent Council for all their consistent hard work.

As we celebrate our first Staff Awards being held in our fantastic new Civic Centre, I look forward to recognising the achievements of Brent staff. As always the standard of nominations is high and it is important that we take the time to appreciate the people that have made our successes possible.

All of those receiving a 2013 Staff Achievement Award share a passion for improving the lives of Brent residents, a passion that comes across clearly when reading and judging all the nomination forms.

These Awards act as a timely reminder of the range of services that Brent Council provides to its residents, and while they only recognise a small number I know there are many more stories that we could tell.

In fact, as Brent faces up to even greater budgetary challenges in the coming years I want to thank all staff for their hard work, dedication and commitment to delivering excellent services.

Congratulations to all our Staff Achievement Awards winners.

Councillor Muhammed Butt, Leader of the Council

Christine Gilbert, Interim Chief Executive 3

EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR

Michelle Hassett

Principal Officer, Locality and Disabled Children’s Service, Children and Families Our employee of the year demonstrates outstanding leadership in her role.

She joined Brent in 2009 as a social worker and through her considerable ability and hard work quickly progressed to deputy, team manager and now principal officer with responsibility for three front line social work teams.

She is highly regarded and has raised the standard of social work practice across the service, representing the service in a number of areas and driving improvements in work with children in need and those at risk of coming into care.

During a colleague’s extended period of sickness Michelle 4

volunteered to cover the role, at no gain to herself, to ensure that staff, and improvements that had begun to the service, were not negatively impacted. For over six months she juggled her demanding job with these added responsibilities, working considerable extra hours in the evenings and weekends.

Alongside, she has personally taken responsibility for motivating and mentoring a number of aspiring managers, and to her testament a number of those now hold permanent managerial roles in Brent social care. Michelle’s drive and commitment shines through everything she does, to the absolute benefit of vulnerable children in the borough.

TEAM OF THE YEAR

Civic Centre Team

Regeneration and Growth This year the team of the year goes to the team which has been responsible for the largest and most progressive service transformation Brent has ever seen, the complete transformation of the entire ‘Brent Service’.

The dedicated and incredible Civic Centre Team worked tirelessly over the past couple of years to deliver the vision of a state of the art home for Brent Council fit for the 21st century and beyond.

With professionalism, commitment, hardwork and boundless energy the team delivered:

• The building on time and to specification • The move of 2,500 staff from 14 different buildings around Brent, into one building smoothly • The induction of every member of staff into the new building.

None of these achievements is a small task and all required detailed project work to ensure they succeeded. The team put in many, many hours ensuring the project succeeded and managed to keep in very good humour throughout.

PUBLIC AWARDS

Individual nominations

Alison Martin

Gary Rimmer

Malcolm Edmunds

Alison was nominated for her smart appearance, manners and for being very clear in everything she says. She always smiles and is polite, even when she has to keep customers waiting, which eases difficult situations.

Resolving a thorny issue with a tree in under 12 hours from first being made aware of it really impressed a resident who wanted to thank Gary by nominating him.

Residents have nominated Malcolm specifically for his handling of problems reported to him on Woodcock Park.

His handling of what the resident described as ‘thankless tasks’ has earned him the praise of a nomination.

Customer Service Officer, Regeneration and Growth

Assistant Aboricultural Officer, Environment and Neighbourhoods

Parks Area Manager, Environment and Neighbourhoods

Fiona Lindsay

Jackie Brown

An application for naturalisation can be a very daunting prospect, but Fiona’s patience and support made the process so much more achieveable for this resident’s new wife.

Jackie’s nominator was really impressed when she responded to an email complaining about the state of their road by turning up and inspecting it, and despite being unable to resolve the problem she has kept in contact and provided regular updates.

Registration and Nationality Officer, Environment and Neighbourhoods

Recycling and Environment Officer, Environment and Neighbourhoods

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PUBLIC AWARDS

Team nominations Harlesden Customer Services

Regeneration and Growth This team received nominations from many different residents, all of who identified that they delivered terrific customer service.

From handling homelessness enquiries, school applications, benefits and advising those new to the country, this team demonstrates absolute professionalism, politeness, patience and the ability to get the job done and really help people.

Willesden Children’s Centres Children and Families

The nominations for this team, from users of the centre, identified that they are a very friendly bunch who work hard and go out of their way to work closely with parents and carers, making them feel in control while helping them to reach their goals. Plus their childcare skills are second to none.

Harlesden Customer Services 6

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

Improvement, efficiency and service transformation Highly Commended Carol Simpson, People Services, Governance and Corporate Services Clare Owen, Brent Learning Disabled Partnership, Adult Social Care Fran Small, Housing Options Team, Regeneration and Growth Leeanna Pitt, Transformation, Adult Social Care

Dinesh Patel

ITU, Governance and Corporate Services Dinesh provides support to teams in the Housing Needs Service.

His experience and knowledge of that area, combined with his calm and thoughtful approach, ensures that any IT issues are dealt with in a timely and effective way. He regularly liaises between departments, uploading reports for every Monday morning to allow the team to ‘hit the ground running’ and ensuring that Northgate V5 operates efficiently and effectively so that the frontline officers are fully equipped to deliver the service.

Monika Hrubecka

Youth Support Service, Children and Families Described as ‘highly committed, reliable, conscientious, and adept at finding and delivering solutions’, Monika regularly shows a willingness to take on new areas of work. She puts service needs first, implementing changes which have led to improvements in efficiency, including devising and implementing systems to identify, report, log and monitor serious incidents involving young people.

She has also improved the quality and timeliness of criminal justice data ensuring accuracy in this delicate area.

Michelle Hassett

Locality and Disabled Children’s Service, Children and Families Michelle joined Brent in 2009 as a social worker and through considerable ability and hardwork progressed to deputy, team manager and now principal officer with responsibility for three front line social work teams. She is highly regarded and has represented the service in a number of areas, driving improvements in work with children in need and those at risk of coming into care and raising the standard of social work practice across the service.

Leena Bhika, Revenues and Benefits, Regeneration and Growth Mina Vara, Registration and Nationality, Environment and Neighbourhoods Nishantha Vitharana, Finance Services Centre, Governance and Corporate Services Paul Hutchinson, Parks and Cemeteries, Environment and Neighbourhoods Punitha Gnanasambanthan, Libraries, Environment and Neighbourhoods Raj Soni-Alagh, People Services, Governance and Corporate Services Tanuja Saujani, Youth and Connexions, Children and Families 7

Highly Commended

Leadership and Supporting Colleagues

Desi Lodge-Patch

Leigh Neville

Naresh Agrawal

As headteacher Desi provides the vision, commitment and determination to ensure that this school for children with moderate learning difficulties continues to be outstanding in every way. This year she was pivotal in gaining Teaching School Status for an alliance of Brent schools, a significant achievement, being the first in the borough and one of only a small number nationally and unusual for a special to take the lead. Her determination and leadership in achieving this is held in high regard by colleagues in the borough, and represents her desire to go above and beyond the responsibilities of her role.

At a time when assessment officers were facing the biggest change in the benefits system in many years, Leigh’s team were also facing the daunting move from a backroom function to frontline customer facing.

Leigh’s consistent support and engagement of each member of his team has resulted in each individual feeling valued and appreciated. He has never said he is too busy to help or turned a member of staff away, no matter how trivial the subject may seem.

His clear leadership made an unprecedented challenging period easy for his team.

Naresh was nominated by all the staff at the New Millennium Day Centre. He has been instrumental in ensuring that all staff received 1-1 IT training, providing the skills and knowledge to ensure that positive and effective changes have occurred in service delivery.

His excellent interpersonal, sensitivity, respect and communication skills has meant that staff are now IT independent, information is easily accessible and better systems are in place to record vital information. Staff have identified that learning from Naresh has been a joy.

Woodfield Secondary School, Children and Families

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Revenues and Benefits, Regeneration and Growth

Direct Services, Adult Social Care

Tony Nixon, Strategic Property and Facilities, Regeneration and Growth Bola Obe, Corporate Services, Governance and Corporate Services Farzana Ibraheem, Administrative Support, Governance and Corporate Servcies Gary Salterpicco, Procurement, Governance and Corporate Services Ian Roberts, Consumer and Business Protection, Environment and Neighbourhoods Jaymini Vyas, Business Partner Team, Governance and Corporate Services Jon Cartwright, Revenues and Benefits, Regeneration and Growth Katherine Bond, Leasehold Management, BHP Lemoy Paterson, Consumer and Business Protection, Environment and Neighbourhoods Michael Burnett, Revenues and Benefits, Regeneration and Growth Natalie Taylor-Lawrence, Reablement and Safeguarding, Adult Social Care Ugo Nwosu, BACES, Regeneration and Growth Janet Hemmings, Housing Needs Service, Regeneration and Growth ‘Lade Ogunseitan, Families Floating Support and START-Plus, Children and Families

Making a difference for customers and the community

High Commended Amna Badri, Early Years and Family Support Services, Children and Families Andreas Kirschner, Consumer and Business Protection, Environment and Neighbourhoods Joanne Winters, Parks, Environment and Neighbourhoods Justin Colman, Locality and Disabled Children’s Services, Children and Families Luke Zanotto, Parks, Environment and Neighbourhoods Meena Kumari Mehta, Pupil and Parent Services, Children and Families

Pat Graves

Rishi Shah

With over 20 years of service Pat has worked tirelessly to ensure that young children with a wide range of needs and difficulties are included and supported to achieve their potential. She is skilled at directly engaging families of Brent children with additional needs, providing support, guidance and signposting them through the most challenging times. Pat and her team support over 100 PVI nurseries and 300 children and a large part of their success is the strength of relationships she has forged with the nurseries, children, their families and a wide range of multi-agency colleagues.

Rishi helps those on low incomes to pay their rent and to avoid homelessness. He deals with customers by post, telephone and face to face and always demonstrates a high level of commitment to those he is helping. He has a sympathetic approach and strives to ensure that all members of the community have access to our services through home visits, interviews using the webcam for deaf applicants, and by translating for customers who struggle with English.

His customer service skills are exemplary.

Services to Schools, Children and Families

Revenues and Benefits, Regeneration and Growth

Peng Yam Yau, Consumer and Business Protection, Environment and Neighbourhoods Princess Omega Gibbs, Wembley Locality, Children and Families Sarah Smith, Libraries, Environment and Neighbourhoods Sharon Loving-Charles, Welfare Reform Team, Regeneration and Growth Shirley Ricketts, Care Planning and Children in Care, Children and Families Aileen Edwards, Revenues and Benefits, Regeneration and Growth 9

TEAM AWARDS

Improvement, efficiency and service transformation Highly Commended Area Planning Teams, Environment and Neighbourhoods Housing Benefit Team, Regeneration and Growth Disabilities and Learning Difficulties Team, Regeneration and Growth Client Affairs Team, Adult Social Care Education Welfare Service, Children and Families Complaints Team Brent Housing Partnership, Regeneration and Growth

Civic Centre Team

Regeneration and Growth This team has been responsible for the largest and most progressive ‘service transformation’ Brent has ever seen. Over the past few years they have worked tirelessly to deliver the new civic centre on time and to specification, move 2,500 staff from 14 different buildings into one, and induct every member of staff into the new building. This has all been achieved with professionalism, dedication and good humour.

Efficiency sums up this team and improvement is what all Brent staff have experienced as a direct result of their hard work.

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Special Education Needs Assessment Service Project Team Children and Families

Under the One Council Programme this team underwent restructure and examined all service delivery to maximise efficiency. There are almost 1,700 children with statements of SEN in Brent and working with Brent special schools they have expanded SEN provision leading to more children’s needs being met in borough rather than expensive out of borough provision. They have improved the timescales in which SEN statements are written and performance has improved from 55 per cent in 2011/12 to 81 per cent in 2012/13.

Consistently high achievement Brentfield Primary Breakfast Club

Road Safety and Travel Planning

Brentfield Primary Breakfast Club

Working closely with all 98 of Brent’s schools, and for the first time with crèche facilities for under 5s, this team have efficiently and effectively delivered travel planning, road safety education and school crossing patrol services. Brent is now amongst the top boroughs in London for school travel plan success and last year three schools received Beacon school awards for walking and cycling excellence, with St Joseph’s Infants receiving a platinum award for the highest performing school in the North London region.

The team at Brentfield Primary Breakfast Club were nominated in recognition of the support they give to working parents through providing a safe and welcoming environment for the children who attend the club. They go out of their way to ensure all children feel included and make sure they have a variety of food available to suit all children’s tastes.

Some of the children are very young and have not previously had the experience of attending nursery but the staff have created a ‘home from home’ environment allowing parents to head for work sure in the knowledge that their children are in great hands.

Environment and Neighbourhoods

Children and Families

Highly Commended Welfare Reform Team Brent Housing Partnership Brent Outreach Autism Team Children and Families The Kalloo Investigation and Prosecution Team Adult Social Care/Governance and Corporate Services

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Chief Executive’s Merit Award Sophie Allen,

The Stonebridge School, Children and Families For a school to provide additional provision is not easy as it often creates disruption to the comfortable running of the school so to decline expansion is often the easier option. But Sophie Allen, the headteacher of Stonebridge school knows that Brent is desperately short of primary school places so her decision to work with the council to expand provision for vulnerable children is to be applauded. Stonebridge Primary is in an area of high economic and social deprivation with an exceptionally high number of children eligible for free school meals, but despite the many challenges Sophie has overseen the opening of a satellite provision on a nearby site, offering five additional classes to children – often new to the country – without a school place to be educated. To ensure that disruption was kept to a minimum and that high standards already in place were maintained, she worked with her staff, governors and the wider school community to engage them in activities and to take ‘ownership’ of the new provision moving forwards. She has gone above and beyond the normal expectation of a headteacher, recognising the importance of this contribution in making a particular difference to the lives of local children and their families.

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LONG SERVICE 25 years

40 years

40 years

Children and Families

Jim Sowerbutts

Children and Families

Andreas Ierotheou Eve Baker Jonathan Taylor Carmen Coffey Jim Oakley Paulette Minott-Statham Malvika Naik Eileen O’Carroll Uma Pandya

Governance and Corporate Services Jasoda Patel

Environment and Neighbourhoods Keith Ellis

Adult Social Care Ian Lynch

40 years

Peter Cassidy

Martin Beasley

Peter ensures that Brent is kept free of flyposting and that our public toilets and furniture is clean and fit for use. When he has a spare working moment he sets about repairing signs and putting up transportation notices, and always with great enthusiasm and willingly. Peter could have retired in 2010 but choose to extend his working life to ensure he saw Brent through the 2012 Olympics.

Peter’s dedication to Brent extends into his private life where he and his wife have fostered over 120 Brent children over the years, and when he retires next year they plan to continue fostering in their new home in Ireland.

Peter’s commitment to Brent was recognised when he was named Employee of the Year 2005.

Martin has spent most of his 40 years of working life in local government, in an area that most would happily avoid – complaints.

He has seen Brent through the years when the council was a ‘favourite’ of the local government ombudsman, being one of the worst performing councils on complaints to an authority that now rarely bothers the ombudsman.

Martin is a ‘people person’ who has infinite patience, charm and courtesy when dealing with angry and persistent complainers, backed by a determination to sort things out and a wonderful way of encouraging busy managers to reply to complaints.

Environment and Neighbourhoods

Strategy Partnerships and Improvement

Jim has spent 39 of his 40+ years teaching and working in Brent. He began with teaching Sociology, History and Politics in 1974, becoming a deputy head of year in 1987 with a natural progression to head of year in 1990. He took a ‘sideways’ step in 2002 to be the co-ordinator for out of hours learning and added cover manager to this role a year later. And although he retired as a teacher in 2007 he has remained as cover manager to support staff.

Jim is passionate about education - highly principled, sincere and genuine. His colleagues value his wit, professionalism, humanity and keen eye for detail, but acknowledge these are nothing compared with his former prowess on the sporting field in rugby and cricket. He has undoubtedly left a very positive mark on generations of students who respect and love him.

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Awards and accreditations St Joseph’s RC Infant School

Village School

Beacon Status from Transport for London

BREEAM Excellent rating

Bike it! Award from Sustrans

Accredited as a teaching school

Preston Manor Lower School

Social Project of the Year, Association of Project Management Awards

Tri Borough leisure management procurement

Civic Centre

Winner of Financial Excellence, Guardian Public Service Awards 2013

Badge for Excellence in Design Innovation from Best of British Schools Awards

Preston Park, Gladstone Park, King Edwards VII Park, Fryent Country Park, Welsh Harp, Mapesbury Dell – Green Flag status

Shortlisted for Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyor Awards for Infrastructure, Design and Innovation, Greenbuild Award 2013

BREEAM Outsanding rating

Shortlisted for New Building Project of the Year, CIBSE Awards

Considerate Constructors Gold Award

Windows on Willesden Green Regeneration and Renewal Award

Special Commendation of Exceptional Architectural Merit, WAN Civic Building Awards

Pre-payment Card

Parks

Best Corporate or Government Funded Category at Paybefore Europe Awards

Mapesbury Dell – Small Park of the year Award, London In Bloom Gold

Wembley Corridor

Fryent Country Park – Country Park of the year Award, London In Bloom Silver

Shortlisted for Greening and Cleaning award, Environment Agency

Runner up for Excellence in Walking and Public Realm, Transport for London Awards

Brent Parks – Large City Award, London in Bloom Silver Gilt and 2nd Place

Adult Social Care

Lee Wenzel, Consumer and Business Protection

King Edwards VII Park – Queen Elizabeth II Fields in Trust status

Individual award for his confiscation work, The Keith Hughes Awards

Winners Innovation Category, LGC Business Partnership Awards Commended for Structural Steel Design Award

Mapesbury Dell – Queen Elizabeth II Fields in Trust status Walled Garden, Roe Green Park – Queen Elizabeth II Fields in Trust status

Joanne Winters London In Bloom Apprentice of the Year Mosaic LGBT Youth Project Runner up National Youth Agency Video Competition Client Affairs Team Highly Commended, MJ Awards Brent River Park Community Partnership

Shortlisted, MJ Awards ITU Shortlisted Public Sector Project of the Year, Techworld Award Roundwood Youth Centre SCALA Innovation Award

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