City of York Council’s Conservative Leader David Carr is asking residents to nominate members of the authority’s workforce who they think are ‘very important people’ for its annual staff recognition awards scheme.
The authority is seeking nominations for the ‘CYC VIP – Celebrating Your Contribution’ awards to help highlight the dedication, diligence and enterprise of staff serving the city across a huge range of roles.
With one of the largest workforces in the city, the council’s annual awards aim to celebrate the work of teams and individuals who have shown exceptional care, commitment or creativity – and made a positive difference to someone’s day or even their lives.
Last year’s winners included Richard Leaning, senior Trading Standards officer, who went above and beyond the call of duty in helping a vulnerable York resident who had fallen prey to rogue traders. The lady nominated Richard after a year long investigation into the case when builders who had built her an unsafe and unfit extension had threatened her with violence when challenged. Richard supported her through the process of getting compensation and rebuilding and also ensuring that she got the emotional and physical support she needed when she suffered a fall during the investigations.
The lady said: “He recognised that I was really struggling with daily living and did his very best to help despite his long work hours. Throughout the 12 months of being assisted by him, I was most aware of his dedication, evidenced by his timely response to all my communications with him, giving full and honest answers to all questions asked of him, and by going beyond his personal work responsibilities by assisting with access to other council services and beyond.”
Other winners were ‘Inspirational Leader’ Gail Sorby, Manager of Haxby Hall Older Person’s Home, who, in a time of great changes in the service, was praised for the way she responded to every challenge, with residents and staff referring to the bubbly personality and warm smile that make Haxby Hall a very happy, supportive and positive place to be and for her work on developing a special Dementia Care facility in Poppyfields. Ann Spetch received a Distinguished Service award for her life long commitment to Early Years Support provision in York. Her passion to improve experiences and education for children under 5 years old has led to a higher qualified workforce and high quality early years provision across the sector.
The council is keen to ensure that none of its employees are overlooked in the nominations and so are asking people to take the time to pass on their appreciation whenever they feel that a member of staff’s contribution should be recognised – be they care worker or caretaker, parks officer or plumber, social worker or street cleaner, transport planner or trading standards officer.
Councillor David Carr, Leader of City of York Council, said: “Every day there are many examples of people across the council providing great customer service, showing a real passion in their roles and pulling out all the stops in their work for the city. This awards scheme forms an important part of the council’s Customer and Workforce strategies, which look to build excellent service in all that we do and help develop and support our employees.”