Council worker recognised for her ongoing support to care homes & people leaving hospital through Covid-19 crisis

Council worker recognised for her ongoing support to care homes & people leaving hospital through Covid-19 crisis

Sarah Totten, Strategic Manager Early Intervention Contact and Hospital, at Stoke-on-Trent City Council has been recognised for her ongoing support to hospitals and care homes during the pandemic, as part of the West Midlands Employers (WME) #EverydayHeroes campaign.*

Sarah and her 32 strong hospital team, including many social workers, have been working hard to get patients out of acute hospital beds, and community health services, and into a safe environment quickly when the clinical staff say they are medically fit to leave to enable the NHS to deal with Covid-19 cases.

Sarah, and her team, have been working closely with patients and clinicians to determine the best option, whether that’s going back to their own home, a nursing or care home or a community hospital depending on their care needs and circumstances.

Sarah has had lots to deal with outside work, after donating a kidney to help her father survive following kidney failure and supporting her daughter through a difficult birth and post-natal depression; but she’s not let this impact her work.

Sarah says, “Making sure patients are safe is our number one priority. We also wanted to support the care homes in our region as much as possible and make sure that they feel like they can ask us for help. We know this has helped vulnerable residents from going into hospital and lowered infection and mortality rates within our independent care providers.”

Councillor Abi Brown, leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said: “Throughout Covid-19, our staff have been completely amazing. Everyone has worked so hard to keep services on track and there have been many shining examples of excellence. Sarah and her team are exactly that – hard-working, passionate, committed and always looking to find solutions. Working alongside health partners, they have really helped to improve the circumstances for many of our residents in hugely challenging times. I’m incredibly thankful and extremely proud that Sarah has been recognised through this initiative.”

Rebecca Davis, Chief Executive of West Midlands Employers, said: “Our incredible care workforce is providing vital support to vulnerable people. Sarah and her team have been doing an incredible job to support patients and hospitals during an incredibly testing time.”

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Note to editors

*Local authority improvement body WME, owned by 33 councils across the West Midlands, launched the campaign this month to recognise #EverydayHeroes – council workers who are working around the clock to keep essential services running and keep us safe through the coronavirus crisis.

Anyone can nominate one or more local council heroes here. West Midlands Employers will review nominations in partnership with the relevant council and we will share their stories via https://wmheroes.co.uk/meet-your-heroes/.

For further information contact

Emma Price T: 07876 505 340 E emma@beheardmedia.co.uk

Notes to editors – About West Midlands Employers

West Midland Employers (WME) is one of 9 independent regional employer organisations nationally.

WME is a not for profit membership organisation owned by the 33 West Midlands local authorities. We are led by an Elected Member Management Board representing the membership body with a Chief Executive leading the organisation. Chief Executive Rebecca Davis is available through media interviews through the contact details above.

WME’s vision is “to advocate, build and champion people centred organisations for a resilient and diverse public sector workforce that benefits everyone in the West Midlands”.  WME launched their new Strategic Plan 2020 -25 earlier this year https://bit.ly/3aYsvHF http://www.wmemployers.org.uk/ourwork

WME is playing a pivotal role in the Local Government response to the Covid-19 crisis and is providing daily support through their Covid-19 site (https://wmecovid19.org.uk/), including provision of advice, innovative webinars, recruitment and resourcing and weekly bulletins Pulse Extra bulletin

WME also work in partnership with public and private sector organisations to design and deliver services on behalf of the 33 Councils in the Region,  which span the employee lifecycle including: candidate attraction, recruitment, talent management, training and development, executive coaching  and mentoring, leadership development, organisational design and restructuring, job evaluation, investigations, mediation and exit plans.