News
Award winners revealed at staff celebration
Our Recognition Awards 2025 was an afternoon to remember – a time to celebrate and recognise outstanding achievement from the past year.
On Monday 8 December, we rolled out the red carpet for our blockbuster-themed showcase at the Vue Cinema in Eltham, hosted by Chief Executive, Dr Ify Okocha and Chief Medical Officer, Dr Abi Fadipe.
With the cinema screen as a backdrop, fantastic applause greeted all our winners and highly commended individuals as they collected their certificates, badges and prizes.
Once again, our People’s Choice Award, voted for by our members from the shortlist, was hugely popular with more than 2,000 votes cast overall. Congratulations to our winner, Bexley Children’s Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy Team, who were announced live at the event.
Our annual awards aim to show how colleagues have put our values – we’re kind, we’re fair, we listen, we care – into action to improve lives and service user experience. We also recognised colleagues who have reached a service milestone in our Long Service Awards and those we have sadly lost from our Oxleas family during the year.
Today is all about celebration – celebration of our staff and of the fantastic work you all do for our patients and their families. We have a lot to celebrate and this hasn’t been achieved without a lot of hard work and commitment. I’m so proud of all you do, every day, to improve lives and provide outstanding healthcare to those who need us most.
Dr Ify Okocha, Chief Executive, Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
Our winners (Directorate winners in bold)
Forensic Services
- Danson Ward – Great Care Category
- Forensic Outreach Team – Timely Care Category
- Forensic Sports and Fitness Team – Best Place to Work Category/Directorate winners
Offender Healthcare Services
- Devon Cluster of Prisons – Great Care Category/Directorate winners
- HMP Erlestoke Team – Timely Care Category
- HMP East Sutton Park Healthcare Team – Best Place to Work Category
Adult Community Mental Health Services
- Bexley Older Adults Team – Community Mental Health Team and Memory Services – Best Place to Work Category
- Community Mental Health COMHAD Workers – Great Care Category
- Rough Sleeping and Mental Health Programme (RAMHP) – Timely Care Category/Directorate winners
Adult Community Physical Health Services
- Adult Community Physical Health Directorate Events Planning Team – Best Place to Work Category
- Bexley COPD Team – Timely Care Category
- Wound Care Project Group – Great Care Category/Directorate winners
Adult Learning Disability Services
- Hydrotherapy Team – Great Care category/Directorate winners
- Therapies Team at London South East Colleges - Bromley Campus – Best Place to Work Category
- Mental Health In-Reach Team – Timely Care Category
Children and Young People’s Services
- Bexley Children's Occupational Therapy & Physiotherapy Team – Best Place to Work Category
- Bromley CAMHS – Timely Care Category/Directorate winners
- Music Therapy Team – Great Care Category
Adult Acute and Crisis Mental Health Services
- Avery Ward – Timely Care Category/Directorate winners
- Bromley Home Treatment Team – Best Place to Work Category
- Shepherdleas Ward – Great Care Category
Corporate Services
- Patient Safety Incident Team (for support to bereaved families) – Great Care Category
- Safeguarding Team (domestic abuse lived experience) – Timely Care Category/Directorate winners
- Strategy, Organisational Development and Improvement Team – Best Place to Work Category
People’s Choice Award
- Winner: Bexley Children’s Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy Team
Governors’ Award
- Winner: Kelly Mills, Young Onset Dementia Nurse
- Highly Commended: Joao Branquinho, Healthroster Manager
- Highly Commended: Lucia Cicoria, Education Mental Health Practitioner
Shadow Executive Award
- Winner: Susan Kaplanbasoglu
- Highly Commended: Owen Luck
- Highly Commended: Laura Oyewole
Volunteer of the Year Award
- Winner: Cindy Champness
- Highly Commended: Jeannette Dobson
- Highly Commended: Pat Follett
Many congratulations to you all!
Media enquiries
The communications team provides a point of contact for journalists to respond to all media enquiries.
We are happy to help journalists represent the trust accurately, so please do get in touch to ensure your facts and information are up-to-date before publishing your story.
Our media team is responsible for:
- Responding to media queries
- Arranging interviews with our nationally and internationally renowned experts who can talk about some of the trust’s specialist topics
For all media enquiries Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, please email oxl-tr.communications@nhs.net where a member of the team will review and action your request.
If you have an urgent enquiry outside of office hours or at the weekend, please contact our director on call via the Bracton Centre switchboard on 01322 294300.
Filming and photography requests
We receive documentary, location and broadcast filming requests on a regular basis – we consider all proposals on an individual basis and will try to accommodate proposals where possible, if appropriate.
No photography or filming is permitted without prior arrangement and agreement. Our patients always come first and we have a duty to protect their safety and confidentiality. Anyone found filming or taking photographs on the trust premises without the permission of the trust’s communications team will be asked to leave by the security department and may face prosecution.
Unless agreed otherwise, film crews and photographers must be accompanied by a member of the Communications Team at all times.
Contact: oxl-tr.communications@nhs.net
