At the beginning of March, Angela Scuotto, one of our Care Certificate Educators was granted the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) award for her Health Care Support Worker (HCSW) Fellowship. Angela received the CNO award for her outstanding work within the fellowship. Angela is one of the HCSW Fellows for NHS England, South East (SE) region.
In 2021, Angela started on secondment in the HCSW pilot programme for SCFT and has since become a permanent Care Certificate Educator at the trust. Angela helps deliver the induction programme and face to face delivery of the Care Certificate at SCFT.
As an HCSW Fellow, Angela has been provided with the opportunity and experience to gain vital knowledge of the management of the NHS and how this impacts the running of local services. Angela has also been able to establish contacts including the Care Certificate Leads Network and the HCSW Educators and Pastoral Support Providers.
One of the first projects within the fellowship involved inviting Trusts from across the SE region to forward bids for up to £1,000 to support health care support workers develop creative and innovative ideas aimed at improving patient care and the way Health Care Support Workers are seen. As an HCSW Fellow, Angela has played a pivotal part in creating and running the SE regional HCSW forum which helps to provide support workers with a safe space to air their views and opinions. Working with other HCSW fellows, Angela has helped to create a handbook for support workers across the SE region alongside creating posters for the recruitment and retention of Health Care Support Workers.
Angela said: “This award was totally unexpected. I am pleased to see that our hard work and efforts have been acknowledge and I am happy to know that our projects are being run on a regional level. I have really enjoyed being a part of the fellowship scheme and feel that it has benefited the trust. I have created excellent contacts with NHS and have implemented some learning from the regional and national meetings.”
Julia Fairhall (Assistant Director of Nursing) said: “I was privileged and very proud to be with Angela Scuotto at the SE Region celebration event for her HCSW Clinical Fellowship which comes to an end this month. At the event, Angela was awarded the CNO award for her outstanding work with the fellowship. I believe this is the first time someone in our Trust has received this.”
