COSLA/IS Conference and Excellence Awards
Local authorities and their partners have a key role to play in improving health and tackling health inequalities.
For several years now, the Local Government Programme at NHS Health Scotland has exhibited at the annual COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities)(external link) and Improvement Service (external link) Conference, which brings together senior local government representatives (including Chief Executives, Council Leaders & senior elected members) and other key public sector leaders.
At the March 2011 conference, NHS Health Scotland supported the 'Tackling Health Inequalities and Improving Health' category of the COSLA Excellence Awards. This Award recognises work that aims to tackle health inequalities and improve health through community engagement, effective partnership working and innovative practice, particularly in the context of Equally Well.
This year’s Gold Award winner, presented by our Chair Margaret Burns CBE, was The Healthy Eating Project for Adults with Learning Disabilities (external link) based in Glasgow. This is a project involving the development of a training course for adults with learning disabilities, across a range of ability levels, which enables them to learn about the key healthy eating messages from the Scottish Healthy Living Campaign by changing it into a more accessible format. Whilst we didn’t realise at the time of the Awards, we have since discovered that this piece of work was originally developed as a consequence of assistance from the NHSHS Health Promoting Health Service Programme.
The Silver Award Winner was The PrePare (external link) service based in Edinburgh. A number of good practice publications specifically recommend that the most effective way to deliver services for pregnant women with problem substance misuse is by an integrated multi-disciplinary team which includes dedicated staff from maternity, neonatal, child health, substance misuse and social work services. This service aims to ensure effective care management and coordination by bringing together a specialist and multi-disciplinary team based in one location.
The North Lanarkshire Council Breakfast Clubs (external link) were presented with The Special Award from Scottish Government in recognition of the fact that North Lanarkshire Council operate one of the most innovative and extensive networks of breakfast clubs anywhere in the UK. Their leading edge approach has successfully expanded the programme in recent years to encompass a wide range of additional activities.
- Read more about the COSLA Excellence Awards and view all the videos from the winning categories (external link).
Reviewed 13 April 2011