Michael Howard Award for Hospice Team of the Year

This award celebrates an outstanding team that has made a positive impact to its hospice, its service users or staff.

Open to all teams within a hospice from fundraising to finance, from HR to clinical, this award honours a hospice team that has gone gone above and beyond, made transformational change or shown commitment to collaboration and innovation.

If a team at your hospice has had a significant positive impact on the community it serves, nominate them for the Michael Howard Hospice Team of the Year award.

This award is named in honour of Michael Howard, Rt. Hon. Lord Howard of Lympne, CH, KC, former Chair and currently a Vice President of Hospice UK's Board of Trustees.

Read our submission criteria and general guidance:

• What makes this team outstanding? 
• What has the team delivered?
• Why have they been successful?
• How has this team delivered a positive impact? 
• What difference has the team made?

The winners have been announced at our National Conference in Glasgow.

The Family Link team were also instrumental in the hospice’s upgrade from ‘good’ to ‘outstanding’ by the CQC in February 2023.

What particularly impressed the judges about their entry was their commitment to building strong external partnerships. Their tenacity, and co-operation with local charities and social services, have helped to keep children in education, out of hospital and free from hunger. This is in addition to securing once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for children to visit their local football teams or visit Disneyland. The team have demonstrated a truly joined up collaborative approach, avoiding working in a silo at all costs.

The Family Link Team at Noah's Ark Children's Hospice are a shining example of a team who have gone above and beyond, creating truly life changing partnerships to support the children and families they serve.

The service was meant to be temporary during COVID – avoiding furloughing its catering team and standing down its volunteers – but subsequently became a permanent service, operating seven days a week, 365 days a year. Its largely volunteer workforce consistently show commitment and outstanding service. The “Meals on Wheels Team" provide valuable links to help vulnerable people benefit from hospice care. 

The Awards Panel commented: “We were particularly impressed with this entry, and how the largely volunteer workforce consistently show commitment and outstanding service to the community, all year-round. We also recognise their collaborative work with other hospice teams, passing on any concerns about people they service back to them, and that they work closely with national food waste and hunger charity FairShare. Well done to all involved!”

They delivered 19% more one-to-one sessions to patients and their family members this year compared to last year (a 60% increase compared to the preceding year), and demonstrated a positive impact on standardised and validated tools used to evaluate their services. As well as their direct work with patients, they have provided training to hospice colleagues and have influenced national guidance and policy.

Judges were impressed by “the sheer range of work that this small team were doing, not just working with bereaved young people and adults but also offering training to nursery and school staff, student nurses and facilitating ECHO sessions for district nurses." 

A final comment from the judges, who said, “they are a shining example of a team who have gone above and beyond, who have had to adapt and evolve and have embraced integrated team working all whilst being willing to transparently evaluate their impact which has been significant”.