Sexual health service picks up gold award

Award win shows the greatest impact for residents

Our Axess Sexual Health Team won the Transformation in Heath & Social Care award for their re-design of Liverpool’s Sexual Health Service.

Working in collaboration with Liverpool City Council’s Public Health Team they picked up their award at the iESE Public Sector Transformation Awards - which celebrates innovative practice in public services.

Submissions were judged on how well projects have transformed access to services, remodelled services, worked in partnership, or a combination of all three. The team was awarded gold standard, as the judges agreed Axess Sexual Health demonstrated the greatest impact for residents.

Director of Public Health, Matt Ashton, said: "I'm so proud of our public health and NHS staff that have been involved in both the redesign and ongoing delivery of this vital service, and I am really pleased that their hard work and innovative approach has been recognised nationally.

“In Axess, we now have a high-quality, modernised, integrated sexual health service in the city, providing free contraception and sexual health services for our residents, which will undoubtedly help to improve the lives of the people that use it."

The re-design is the result of two years of planning, consulting and refining with users and was launched last November. The service covers all aspects of sexual and reproductive health, including face-to-face consultations, contraception advice, testing and treatment by post. The service focuses on prevention and places education and self-care at its core.

Dr Martyn Wood, Regional Clinical Director for the Axess service: "It's great to see Axess staff getting the recognition that they deserve following a successful service merger. This award is fantastic news for everyone that has worked so hard on the service redesign and continues to work on the ongoing successful delivery of this vital service to improve the lives of the people in the community."

This year, iESE Awards received 261 nominations across 16 award categories from 81 organisations - their most competitive year yet - so a big well done to those involved in Public Health's entry, your hard work certainly paid off!