My Blog

On Monday 14th March I had the pleasure and honour to speak at the Journal of Health Visiting conference and that evening I hosted and presented their awards event. Both were at the impressive Botanical Gardens in Birmingham. This is a very pretty venue and a refreshing change from the usual ‘corporate’ spaces.

The conference was entitled ‘Best practice in the early years high impact areas’.

‘The Early Years High Impact Area documents have been developed to support the transition of commissioning to Local Authorities and to help inform decisions around the commissioning of the health visiting service and integrated children’s early years services. The purpose of the High Impact Area documents is to articulate the contribution of health visitors to the 0-5 agenda and describe areas where health visitors have a significant impact on health and wellbeing and improving outcomes for children, families and communities.’  

The conference was well attended and it was a full programme:

  including me!

It was an inspiring and interesting day – thanks to all those who made it possible and to those who attended.

I then had a quick change and returned ready to rehearse the Awards evening proceedings and sound checks! The room looked amazing with beautiful lighting and large candelabras – as shown on the feature photo at the top of the blog.

I admire the work that health visitors do very much, so I was very pleased to be asked to host the evening. So often the incredible work that our healthcare professionals (HCPs) do is taken for granted. When I had a brief period in sales and later attended other corporate events with speaking colleagues, it showed the huge gap between celebrating and rewarding success in the different professional worlds. It seems unfair that someone can be handsomely rewarded with expensive rewards and bonuses ‘just’ for making sales, yet the day to day differences that HCPs make, generally go unnoticed. It is a reflection on our materialistic society.

So I applaud the Mark Allen Group, who own the Journal of Health Visiting; Jon Benson, their MD; his amazing team; the team at the Botanical Gardens; the events team and photographer plus the sponsors who all worked together to ensure that all those mentioned for awards were made to feel special.

I aimed to also make them feel appreciated and valued.

Here are the names of those short-listed for the awards and the first places have a star next to them:

After dinner, the award ceremony began, complete with great sounds and music. The atmosphere in the room was wonderful and as each award was announced, the cheers increased in volume! Here are a selection of the photographs taken on the evening by Mike Frisbee photography.

The glassware

Awards ready to be given out

Cath Fairlie and her colleagues – one of the sponsors

Stunning plants and pretty ladies

Pre-dinner mingling

I instinctively found fellow people from the NW!

Pre-dinner drinks

In the main room

Me!

Emma and the team from Best Beginnings

Manchester Community Infant Feeding Team with Sharin Baldwin and I

Claire from NANNYcare and The Children’s Food Trust Eat Better, Start Better programme

Jon Benson and the ladies from Nottingham City Care Health Visiting Teams

Some of the award winners

Let the dancing begin!

All of the pictures from the event can be found on a link at the bottom of the ceremony page, on the website here.

I had a wonderful evening and hope that I added value to the occasion. It really was an honour to be part of it.

Very well done to all those who were nominated and keep up the excellent work!

Elaine 🙂