Hollybank makes the shortlist of this year’s Charity Times Awards

charitytimes awards

We are delighted to announce that we’ve been shortlisted in the 2021 Charity Times Awards.

It’s in the Best Use of Technology category for our roll out of Workplace at the beginning of the pandemic as a tool to keep our dedicated and determined teams informed and inspired.

At the start of the pandemic we were looking for ways to keep in touch with our staff team, so started using Workplace. It’s like Facebook so it’s really easy to use.

In March 2020 – like the majority of our peers in the social care sector – Hollybank’s preferred working practices were pulled from under our feet. The years of work we had put into successfully breaking down organisational silos were reversed overnight, at a time when there had never been a more pressing need for us to communicate with our dispersed staff teams.

That’s where Workplace came in. It provided us with a lifeline during a time of crisis, enabling us to reach teams quickly and keep them up to speed with ever-changing rules, restrictions and ways of working designed to keep the children, young people and adults who live and learn here safe and healthy.

It really helped us connect when we were all forced to work apart. We’ve held virtual coffee mornings, Makaton sign and sing along sessions and even did some tutorials so that our children, young people and adults wouldn’t miss out on making Christmas crafts.

Our frontline staff are all superstars. Thanks to their unwavering commitment and care, we are coming out of the pandemic with no fatalities and a minimal number of positive cases. We are extremely thankful for that – and to the awards for recognising the part that Workplace played in helping us do that.

We’ve also used Workplace to share all the thank you messages we’ve received from families and supporters to keep everyone going in what have been really tough times.
We won’t find out if we’ve won until September, but we’re super-stoked to have made the shortlist!