Press Release: 1st August 2024
escalla is proud to announce that we have been shortlisted for three prestigious awards at the 2024 Personnel Today Awards. For the collaborative bespoke learning programme, “Handling Difficult Situations with Compassion: Caring for yourself and others”, NHS England and escalla are finalists in the ‘Excellence in Public Service HR’ and ‘Learning & Development Award - Larger Employers’ categories. Additionally, escalla has been shortlisted for the ‘L&D Supplier of the Year’.
The Personnel Today Awards, this year in its 26th year, celebrate the very best achievements and innovations in HR and learning and development. After receiving a record number of entries, and much deliberation from the expert judging panel, the finalists will meet in London in November at the Awards Ceremony.
‘Handling Difficult Situations with Compassion: Caring for yourself and others’ was designed to give frontline, patient-facing NHS workers the skills and techniques to handle difficult situations with compassion, including using appropriate communication techniques and active listening skills. Following a successful pilot, during which more than 2400 staff attended a session , Phase 2 expanded to train a further 5000 staff. Completed in March 2024, the final phase, Phase 3, delivered the original training to a further 1700 participants. This phase continued to deliver strong outcomes, with 93.6% of participants rating their training experience positively and 91.9% indicating they would recommend the training to their colleagues. New components were also introduced to extend the reach and long-term support of NHS staff, including additional Train-the-Trainer sessions and eLearning modules to enhance accessibility and flexibility.
The training, which was commissioned by NHS England, was made available to both clinical and non-clinical frontline NHS colleagues across the country. Colleagues learnt how to manage the rise in aggressive and threatening behaviour, as well as the skills to de-escalate and support patients in distress.
David Field, MD at escalla commented, "Developing this programme with NHS staff, for NHS staff, has been a huge honour. The programme feedback has been fantastic, with participants not only feeling more confident in the workplace but being able to take those soft skills into their personal lives, too. "
“Helping NHS England in supporting staff to feel valued has been a privilege. The ultimate hope is that, in time, this will improve critical challenges like retention, because staff will feel supported by their organisation.”
“This really is wonderful news - the fact we’ve been shortlisted for three awards is a testament to our amazingly hard-working and deserving team. "
The full Handling Difficult Situations' Training Programme Evaluation can be viewed below:
Alongside the project with NHS England, 2024 has also seen escalla complete the largest public safety systems transformation project ever seen. David Field adds,“The past three years have been a transformative time for escalla, with the completion of two of the largest projects in our 20-year history as a Training Provider. We are delighted to be recognised in the ‘L&D supplier of the Year’ category and are very much looking forward to the Awards ceremony in November."
The full list of nominees for the 2024 Personnel Today Awards can be found here.
