The Mental Health award is this year supported by the Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, who take over the running of services in Herefordshire on April 1.

The Trust provide community nursing, therapy and mental health services for people of all ages experiencing both physical and/or mental health conditions.

The Trusts is a Global Digital Exemplar, and is transforming the way digital and technology supports patients and staff throughout the Trust.

Rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission, it currently provides 81 different services from over 100 sites. There are 4,000 staff, and 28,000 patient contacts every week.

A spokesman said: “Our vision is ‘Working together for outstanding care’ and this places partnership working at the heart of what we do.

“When we think ‘partners’ we think patients, carers, staff, GPs, charities and voluntary organisations and of course other health and care organisations across our local area

Current local statutory partners are include Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group; Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust; Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust; Herefordshire County Council; Healthwatch Herefordshire

“We work closely with these organisations on something called the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership, or STP. Essentially this is about local organisations coming together to ensure local health and care services remain safe, effective and sustainable and that collectively we can meet our challenges. The partnership is also about delivering the priorities outlines in the NHS Long Term Plan locally across Herefordshire and Worcestershire

“At the Trust, the quality and safety of your care are our highest priorities. There are national and local standards, policies and procedures to ensure you have the best possible outcomes and experience.”

Four key innovation areas at the Trust are:

Digital Dictation: transforming care to patients and service users and enhancing the way staff and teams work. Digital Dictation allows staff to verbally input a patients’ note into a system without having to manually input it, saving loads of time

VR: Examples include people with learning disabilities or anxiety about treatments – like fear of dentistry – plus children and young people with severe or life limiting conditions.

BESTIE is a new online resource and app designed to support children’s mental health and wellbeing. It has been designed and developed by children and young people.

Together we can: A culture across the organisation which encourages staff to think differently to improve the work we do. A Quality Improvement Award is a key in the annual staff awards.