Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership has won the Excellence for Mental Health Care category in the 2019 NHS Parliamentary Awards.

The partnership’s win was announced at a gala event at the Houses of Parliament today (Wed 10 July).

Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership improves the lives of more than 6,000 people living with mental health challenges a year by offering recovery, hope and ambition to people in Oxfordshire through a recovery programme which offers all-round support and care.

People are provided with a complete recovery package focusing on emotional and physical care, wellbeing, education, skills, employment, financial stability and housing by the partnership which formally brings together six local NHS and charity sector organisations: Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Oxfordshire Mind, Restore, Response, Connections Floating Support and Elmore Community Services.

The NHS Parliamentary Awards asked MPs across the country to find and nominate individuals and teams they thought had made the biggest improvements to health services in their constituencies across 10 categories.

OMHP was chosen from hundreds of nominations from up and down the country and received the unanimous backing of all of Oxfordshire’s six MPs.

Vanessa Odlin, service director at Oxford Health, said: “We’re absolutely delighted and shocked; it’s such a wonderful surprise. This award is for every service user, patient, member, and member of staff who plays their part so Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership can help and care for the people of Oxfordshire.”

Dan Knowles, chairman of Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership, said: “We are of course delighted and humbled to have won this prestigious national award. The Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership is special because of the way we all work together as partners, delivering services to Oxfordshire residents with mental health challenges. The award is a testament to the hard work of our staff and volunteers, and importantly to all users of our services – their bravery, resilience and fortitude is a daily inspiration.

“Our thanks go to all six Oxfordshire MPs for supporting this application, and also to those that fund the partnership in Oxfordshire County Council and the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group. We know there is much more we need to do and this award will give us added incentive to strengthen and deepen our work. For now however we will celebrate!”

Robert Courts, MP for Witney and West Oxfordshire, said: “OMHP do such amazing work with people living with mental health challenges, helping them to overcome the challenges they may face. From in-hospital care, outpatient rehabilitation, and even supporting people back into employment or education, OMHP’s holistic approach is exemplary. They are a truly deserving winner, a testament to Oxfordshire, and I am proud to have nominated the team.”

Simon Stevens, NHS England chief executive, said: “It has once again been a privilege to celebrate with some of the extraordinarily dedicated and selfless health and care heroes who make the NHS what it is today – the much-loved institution that our patients say is what makes them most proud to be British. From those who have devoted their lives to helping people and supporting some of our most vulnerable, to delivering pioneering lifesaving treatments, the NHS Parliamentary Awards are rightly honouring those who continue to make a huge contribution to our country, through our NHS Long Term Plan.”

We are better together

Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership improves the lives of more than 6,000 people living with mental health challenges a year.

The partnership offers recovery, hope and ambition to people in Oxfordshire through a recovery programme which offers all-round support and care.

Specialist mental health organisations from the NHS and third sector give Oxfordshire people a complete recovery package focusing on emotional and physical care, wellbeing, education, skills, employment, financial stability and housing.

Judges heard how the partnership offers recovery, hope and ambition to people in Oxfordshire through a recovery programme of all-round support and care. The partnership offers people a complete recovery package focusing on emotional and physical care, wellbeing, education, skills, employment, financial stability and housing. It is able to do this through a range of intersecting services, project and initiatives which combine to create a network of support around service-users by working together as specialist mental health organisations from the NHS and third sector in Oxfordshire.

Another pioneering project to develop a Digital Care Assistant (DCA), which enables staff to gather observations from mental health inpatients without waking them at night, was named regional winner for the South East in the Future NHS Award.

Learn more about the NHS Parliamentary Awards