Bucks Football League won the Health Improvement and Reducing Inequality award at the regional Strategic Health Authority awards held on November 27th in Newbury. The project highlights the setting up of a football club called Aylesbury Academicals, which is run by and for current and past mental health service users in the Aylesbury area, with staff providing support and advice. Steve Bell from the Bucks Early Intervention Service has been instrumental is setting up the league. Team members joined Steve in representing the project on the day.

The annual Celebrating Success Awards event are held by the South Central Health Authority and winners were voted for by over 200 staff across the region at the event.

Two other projects from the Trust also made it to the final. The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service Modernisation Project was short listed in the Working Together category recognising its excellent work with young people, and came third in its category. The WanderGuardian made the shortlist for the Innovation in Technology category for its device to help carers look after people with dementia, and came second in its category.

The Trust were the only mental health Trust to win an award this year, the only Trust who have won an award at this event for four years running, the only Trust in Oxfordshire or Buckinghamshire to win an award this year, the only Trust to win a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place at the awards, and the football project polled the biggest single vote of any of the projects, with 35% of the total audience vote.