For Immediate Release 16/01/2025
New College Durham (NCD) proudly announces its successful attainment of the ‘Continuing Excellence,’ Better Health at Work Award, a testament to the college's commitment to promoting health and wellbeing in the workplace.
The Better Health at Work Award is a recognition of the efforts made by employers in the North East and Cumbria to address health issues within the workplace. The scheme is designed to be free, flexible, and open to all employers in the region, regardless of their size, location, or type of business.
New College Durham’s journey with the Better Health at Work scheme began five years ago. Now, through hard work, and a sincere commitment to employee wellbeing, NCD has reached this significant milestone in its ongoing mission to prioritise the health and wellbeing of its staff.
Karl Fairley, Deputy Chief Executive, New College Durham said,
“In today's challenging times, workplace health is more critical than ever. As businesses and organisations strive to maintain productivity and competitiveness, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that it is our staff that make it possible.
Our hard-earned success highlights that any organisation, regardless of its scale, can make substantial improvements to the health and wellbeing of their employees.
With over 400 regional employers participating in the scheme, and favourable findings from independent evaluations, the Better Health at Work Award has proven its effectiveness for all concerned.”
New College Durham's submission for the Gold Better Health at Work Award was commended with the assessor reporting:
“New College Durham have provided an excellent outline of the activity that they have carried out, this has been delivered in a professional and friendly way that encouraged staff to engage with the campaigns. Following each campaign they have completed evaluations and used this evidence to shape other campaigns. It is clear to see that they have truly embraced the ethos of Health and Wellbeing in the workplace and considered how the environment impacts upon staff wellbeing, making a number of changes aligned to the feedback received. It was a pleasure to see the progress that they had made.”
Karen Milne, Project Leader at New College Durham, added “Our journey towards continuing excellence has given us the opportunity to work with partner organisations to develop an offer of health and wellbeing that is responsive to the needs of our workforce.
We are looking forward to working towards maintaining excellence and the challenges and opportunities this will bring.”
New College Durham will now focus on retaining ‘Continuing Excellence’ status for at least the next two years. sharing their experience and supporting other organisations in their quest to improve health and wellbeing in the workplace. Once this is achieved the college will be recognised as an ‘Ambassador’ for the initiative.
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Notes to Editor
The Better Health at Work Award offers a structured framework to guide employers through five levels of recognition: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Continuing Excellence, and Maintaining Excellence. Each level comes with specific criteria to build a comprehensive Award Portfolio.
Picture Caption
L-R Karen Milne (Project Leader) Sarah Elliott (Learner Development Co-ordinator) Elaine Bonham (Executive Director of HR and Corporate Service) Karl Fairley (Deputy Chief Executive, New College Durham)