Third and final round of VIP Award finalists announced

A third lineup of staff shortlisted for their outstanding service to the community will progress to the 2023-24 finals of Orkney Islands Council’s VIP Awards.

It’s the last round for this season of the annual Awards - which recognise ‘Values in Practice’ demonstrated by OIC employees - before the final celebrations in June.

There, winners will be crowned across three categories – Customer Focus, Working Together, and Creativity.

The Awards were launched last September to highlight the great work across Orkney Islands Council and are aimed at recognising work which reflects OIC’s values - People, Unity, Trust, Ownership and Creativity.

The third round finalists, as nominated by the community and colleagues and shortlisted by a panel, are:

For the Customer Focus category:

• Diane Petrie, Children and Families Social Worker – for her compassion, understanding and reassurance provided to a family as they navigated the road to becoming adopters.
• The Orkney Ferries team – for outstanding work supporting the resilience of our isles communities by keeping ferries running despite the challenges of weather and ageing vessels.

For the Working Together category:

• The Smiddybrae House Team – for pulling together and going above and beyond to ensure the facility was sufficiently staffed and everyone was safe during ‘snowmageddon’ earlier this year.
• Walter Gorman, Team Leader (Adult and Family Learning) – for his ‘can do’ attitude to achieving results for Orkney’s young people.

For the Creativity category:

• Denise Wick, Social Work Assistant, Children and Families – for her painstaking care and attention to creating detailed ‘life story’ books for children and young people who can’t live with their birth parents.
• Cathy Martin, Service Manager (Adult & Learning Disability Social Work) - for her work developing a united, multi-agency approach to working with vulnerable people on ‘personal plans’ when they are in crisis, giving people back a crucial sense of control and ownership of their lives during challenging times.

Karen Greaves is the Council’s Corporate Director of Strategy, Performance and Business Solutions, the service area with responsibility for organisational development. She said:

“The ‘VIP’ in our awards stands for ‘Values in Practice’ and once again these finalists are making an indisputable and crucial difference to many in our community and within our teams.”

Would you like to acknowledge great work by an OIC team or staff member? Remember - everybody’s work at the Council impacts on the community and all people in all roles can be nominated for an award.

You can make a nomination at www.orkney.gov.uk/VIPAwards – submissions have now closed for the Finals in June 2024, but any new nominations will go forward for the new Awards season, with the first round closing in September 2024.