December 8, 2022

Cumbria CVS staff are celebrating, following multiple awards recognising their work.

With two awards at the CLIC ceremony at the end of November, and the presentation of a MBE shortly after, the festive season began in winning style with recognition of the hard work, dedication, and success of different areas of our work, and the colleagues involved.

The first of the awards came at the Cumbria Learning and Improvement Collaborative (CLIC) ceremony in Carlisle.

The awards celebrate the achievements of individuals and teams within the local health and social care system across north Cumbria, with a particular focus on improvement and partnership working, and recognise the work that has been happening in collaboration with other organisations and the people who use the services.

At the celebration event, at People First in Carlisle, Jane Macfarlane picked up the Outstanding Individual award for her tireless work as the Living With & Beyond Cancer Project Coordinator, supporting individuals to access a range of great services designed with their needs at heart.
We also collected the System Recognition award for our Third Sector Referral Coordinator team’s work to promote community-based services, as well as Clare Edwards’ work in cross-sector collaboration.

Just a few days later Dr Carolyn Otley, Community Resilience Coordinator, received her MBE from Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace, awarded in The Queen’s Birthday Honours list, for services to the community during Covid-19.

Chief Executive, David Allen, was delighted to see staff recognised with awards, and said “Jane and her committed team of volunteers have moved from strength to strength in helping people live with and beyond cancer. Clare and our Third Sector Referral Coordinators are another great team of winners who continue to innovate and improve access to VCFSE sector support across North Cumbria. And it’s fantastic that one of our longest-serving colleagues, Carolyn, has received this national recognition for her sterling work throughout the pandemic. A more well-deserved accolade (and modest recipient) would be hard to find.”

Carolyn said “It was a huge privilege to be there; there are thousands of people across Cumbria who helped in their own communities during the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as many other people involved in the coordination of that community response through their work, and anything I was able to contribute was entirely dependent on their efforts”.

And Dominic Gordon, Senior 3rd Sector Referral Coordinator, said “On behalf of Clare and the Third Sector Referral Coordinator Team, I can say it was an immensely proud moment to be shortlisted for the award in the first instance and an even greater honour to be announced as winners. Sadly, Clare couldn’t be there on the day, but the TSRC Team attended and were presented with the award by Ed Tallis, Head of Place for ‘North East North Cumbria Integrated Care Board.’

I can’t express how much I admire the dedication, tenacity, and sheer hard work shown by the TSRC Team (Jayne Povey, Louise Giovannini, Lesley Hinds & Lisa Cox) and the wider recognition this award brings is richly deserved.

Equally, I think it fitting to pay special homage to Clare, not only for her expansive knowledge and work across the system promoting truly integrated partnership working between the Third Sector and Statutory Agencies, but also because she was the original creator and vision behind the Third Sector Referral Coordinator Team – for this alone Clare we are truly grateful.”

Watch Jane taking about the Living With and Beyond Cancer programme:

Watch Clare and colleagues talking about the Third Sector Referral Coordinator team: