Healthcare teams from all over the UK came together on Wednesday 13 November at Leicester Diabetes Centre (LDC) for the 2024 Celebrating DESMOND Awards. The annual event recognises and celebrates the achievements of teams delivering DESMOND programmes over the last year.

Alison Northern, DESMOND and Implementation Lead for LDC explains: “Every year we look forward to the Celebrating DESMOND Awards as it gives us an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the individuals and teams who go above and beyond to provide the best education for people living with, or at risk of, type 2 diabetes in their communities.”

The recipients of the awards were nominated by colleagues. The award categories and winners were:

The Deirdre McGowan Educator of the Year

This award is given to someone who has made a difference to the lives of people with or at risk of type 2 diabetes. This person has shown an outstanding commitment to the DESMOND philosophy and principles. Not only have they supported participants, but they have also supported and mentored fellow educators.

Winner: Annette Routledge, Diabetes Clinical Nurse Specialist at North Cumbria Integrated Care – Cumbria Diabetes Education.

Annette’s career in Cumbria spanned over 25 years. During that time, she has played a key role in redesigning the diabetes service, making sure there is a focus on structured education for people living with diabetes.

DESMOND first launched in North Cumbria in 2009. Annette was integral in identifying, training, and supporting the first cohort of 34 DESMOND Educators who in their first year delivered 130 courses across the county. Since then, Annette has continued with commitment and enthusiasm to support the expansion of DESMOND offered in North Cumbria.

Annette supports local clinicians to equip them with the skills to provide frontline, person-centred diabetes care and supports ongoing quality development and improvements among the DESMOND Educators.

Colleagues have called Annette the “angel of diabetes” for her passion, expertise and humour in delivering diabetes care and education, and say that she inspired them to become DESMOND Educators.

Annette has been innovative when adapting the DESMOND Injectable Therapies programme for the rural population in North Cumbria. She practices and promotes DESMOND values at every opportunity - with professional colleagues and course participants.

Annette shows passion and drive for diabetes education that has inspired and rubbed off on her colleagues, who describe her as “a great mentor.”

Highly Commended: Mandy Snape, (also known as ‘Mandy the legend’ by her colleagues!), Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust.

Team of the Year

This award goes to a team that has been exceptional at delivering high-quality education to people with or at risk of type 2 diabetes. A team which always strives to be the best at what they do.

Winner: NHS Lothian Weight Management, Type 2 Diabetes Prevention and Diabetes Team.

The Lothian team currently boasts 20 DESMOND and six Let’s Prevent Diabetes Educators offering group and digital programmes for adults with and at risk of type 2 diabetes. This team covers a large geographical area with a population of over 860,000 people, and in 2023/24 they received 3,300 referrals.

This high volume of referrals is a challenge that the team have met and overcome. They offer sessions both virtually and in-person and have committed to running sessions at a wide variety of times and locations to accommodate the schedules of attendees. By offering this the team aims for maximum patient engagement by providing the education to the patient at the right place and at the right time.

The team has recently gone through an outpatient redesign which involved all referrals going onto a patient management system, called “TRAK.” This has had a major positive impact on the service as it allows more efficient patient administration and waiting list management.

The team’s patient feedback confirms that their hard work is paying off, with people saying that the Educators are extremely friendly and down to earth and that they find the social aspect of the programme make them enjoyable, as well as educational.

Highly Commended: Barking and Dagenham, North East London NHS Foundation Trust.

Innovation

This award goes to the person or team who has contributed to developing and testing new innovative ideas in their DESMOND service.

Winner: Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

The Nottinghamshire DESMOND team have implemented several, innovative changes to improve the experience for their participants, including the way in which DESMOND sessions are delivered or accessed by participants. They have looked at methods for improving Educator skills and knowledge to make sure the team always provides the highest standard of care including regular Educator meetings, as well as allowing other healthcare professionals to observe to gain insight into what is covered.

The team’s success would not be possible without the forward thinking, flexible, and patient-centred approach of every team member, including the DESMOND Administrators, as well as wider admin and dietetic teams.

As a team, they strive to ensure equal access to DESMOND, including working with the local Deaf society community development officer to offer DESMOND for the D/deaf community and exploring the provision of targeted groups specifically for under 40s. The Notts team are also looking at ways to make self-referral even easier and have found innovative ways to increase interaction during virtual sessions.

The Notts team want to improve the opt-in rate for DESMOND so have partnered with four GP surgeries and are currently exploring the reasons why patients choose not to take part.

Highly Commended: Luton team, NHS Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust.

Excellence in Group Education

This award is given to the person or team who has gone above and beyond and been exemplary in what they have achieved when delivering group education this year.

Winner: Nikoletta Siddique, Diabetes Specialist Nurse for North Central Division, Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust.

When the DESMOND programme was first introduced across Barnet in April 2023, Nikoletta was enthusiastic about completing her training and achieved full DESMOND Educator accreditation a year later. Her proactive involvement ensured that the new programme was integrated smoothly across the patch.

She has continued to make significant contributions to the DESMOND service which included creating a promotional video explaining the importance of early intervention.

Nikoletta has also worked tirelessly to support the recruitment of Hindi-speaking patients to DESMOND groups as part of a project to reduce health inequalities in the Barnet area, which has been highly successful.

Nikoletta’s ability to manage complex cases with ease and her proactive approach to patient education have significantly improved the health outcomes for many individuals under her care. She is highly respected by both patients and peers, and her work has had a substantial positive impact on the department in which she works.

Nikoletta’s dedication to patient education is truly commendable, she fully embodies the principles of the DESMOND programme.

Highly Commended: Ipswich, East Sussex and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust.

Outstanding Achievement Award

This year for the first time all category winners were considered for a new Outstanding Achievement Award. We are pleased to announce that the inaugural winner for this was:

Annette Routledge, Diabetes Clinical Nurse Specialist at North Cumbria Integrated Care – Cumbria Diabetes Education.

Alison Northern adds “Myself and the whole judging panel felt that the work Annette has achieved and her commitment across Cumbria in the name of DESMOND not just over the last year, but the last 15 since DESMOND was launched in Cumbria, is truly astounding. It is an honour to be able to acknowledge Annette’s dedication to DESMOND and Cumbrian diabetes patients with this award.”

Thank you to all the DESMOND teams who submitted nominations for the 2024 Celebrating DESMOND Awards. To find out more about the DESMOND education programmes, visit: www.desmond.nhs.uk/programmes