We are the champions! Trust’s Staff Wellbeing Service is best in the East
The Staff Wellbeing Service at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust has been crowned an East of England champion in the inaugural NHS Excellence Awards.
The service - which provides a range of support to the Trust’s 4,700-strong workforce from menopause help and management of long-term conditions to physiotherapy and workstation assessments – will now go forward to the national finals which are being held in June.
Fiona Gelnar, Staff Wellbeing Lead (pictured), said: “This is fantastic news and I am delighted for the team. We are incredibly proud to support our colleagues to stay well at work and continue to provide the very best care for our patients and service-users.”
The SWS team put forward a detailed entry about their work in the Valuing Our People category in the NHS Excellence Awards which have been set up to recognise outstanding work and celebrate innovation and impact across the National Health Service.
They will be up against six other regional winners from London, North East and Yorkshire, North West, South East and South West for the national title which will revealed at a special ceremony in Manchester on 10 June.
In 2025, the service responded to 570 referrals. Of those who gave feedback, 48 per cent said the support prevented a period of sickness absence, while 22 per cent returned to work more quickly following sickness. Sixty-five per cent of staff said that the service enabled them to remain working at the Trust.
Fiona added: “Preventing sickness absence and supporting colleagues to stay at work or return earlier to their roles is better for them, our patients, and the NHS.
“It means patients can receive continuity of care – being treated by the people they know – and for our organisation as we can reduce spending on temporary workers.
“The service we have developed has generated a lot of interest from other organisations across the local health system and we are committed to using the feedback we receive and the evidence we are gathering to continue to improve the support we offer.”
The NHS Excellence Awards has 10 categories and the finals will take place at the Manchester Central Convention Centre.
CPFT provides community physical health services for older people and adults with long term conditions, mental health services, children community services in Peterborough, social care and learning disability services. The Trust is also renowned for its research and development work and in June 2025, CPFT was awarded Teaching Partner status by the University of Cambridge.
ENDS
For more information contact:
Andy Burrows, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
Deputy Head of Communications
E communications@cpft.nhs.uk