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Caerphilly Council shortlisted in three categories at APSE Annual Service Awards!

Posted on : 01 Sep 2021

Caerphilly Council shortlisted in three categories at APSE Annual Service Awards!
The APSE awards recognise the very best in local government frontline services across the UK and following a rigorous round of judging, Caerphilly County Borough Council has been shortlisted in the following categories:
 
  • Best Service Team: Catering Service
  • Best Service Team: Sports, Leisure and Cultural Service
  • Best Service Team: Environmental Health, Trading Standards and Regulatory Service
Our catering service has been shortlisted in the ‘Best Service Team: Catering Service’ for their amazing response to delivering Free School Meals during the pandemic.

In March 2020, the Welsh Government announced that all schools would close with immediate effect due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Caerphilly County Borough Council was faced with the challenge of how they would provide a service to over 6243 Free School Meals pupils.

The local authority catering team showed true entrepreneurship, creativity and strong leadership skills by implementing a FSM home delivery service that involved partnership working with local suppliers and over 20 service areas within the authority.

The ‘Best Service Team: Sports, Leisure and Cultural Service’ category saw Caerphilly Council shortlisted for the team’s incredible attitude towards redeployment during the pandemic.

During a period of unprecedented challenge, the Sport & Leisure Services Team in Caerphilly have not only continued to deliver a broad and diverse range of outstanding sport and active recreation opportunities but have flexed and mobilised its resources to support the Councils’ response to Covid-19.

Examples of the type of work undertaken and supported by sport and leisure base staff included:
 
  • Supporting the delivery of 1.5m Free School Meals to families across the county borough
  • Supporting the implementation and delivery of the Test, Trace, Protect system
  • Supporting the reopening of the county borough’s Household Waste Recycling Centre’s
  • Supporting the councils ‘Care-Line’ scheme, providing telephone support for some of the county boroughs most vulnerable residents
  • A number of staff volunteering to assist with the councils ‘Caerphilly Cares’ scheme, which supported the county boroughs most vulnerable residents in areas such as shopping, prescription collection and general errands
  • Working in collaboration with Public Health Wales and Aneurin Bevan University Health Board to establish and deliver over 72,000 vaccinations as part of the county borough’s Mass Vaccination Centre

Caerphilly County Borough Council was also shortlisted in the ‘Best Service Team: Environmental Health, Trading Standards and Regulatory Service’ for their Contact Tracing Service.

The Test, Trace and Protect team was created in unprecedented times to deliver community based contact tracing, employing local people to support the community during the pandemic.

In Wales, the delivery model for Contact Tracing differed from other nations in the UK and has been delivered by each Local Authority that has collaborated with their regional Health Board.

The aim of the service was to work collaboratively to set up a Contact Tracing service to assist the social and economic recovery of our communities, in a way that is safe and protects our NHS and social care teams. Caerphilly started its service with a team of forty redeployed staff using a remote working model.

The team now operate a high performing, sophisticated contact tracing service, which is vital to our Covid response and offering comprehensive support and advice to our citizens to assist them in complying with self-isolation requirements to help to keep our communities safe.

The winners will be announced at the APSE Annual Charity Awards Dinner, in aid of Parkinson’s UK, on Thursday 9 September 2021 in Birmingham.

Cllr Philippa Marsden, Leader of Caerphilly Council commented, “I am thrilled that Caerphilly Council has been recognised and made the finalists in three categories at this year’s APSE awards. Caerphilly County Borough Council strives to deliver the best possible service to our community so it’s wonderful to see that the authority’s hard work has been recognised on a national scale.”


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