The North London Councils partnership, which comprises the borough councils of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington, was put forward as a finalist in the Local Government Chronicle’s (LGC) 2021 annual awards in the ‘Health & Social Care’ category. Enfield has one of the largest number of care homes in London. It is the only multi-council partnership to be named as a finalist in this year’s awards. Competition judges shortlisted the partnership for its successful innovations in tackling the North London area’s shortage of beds and better managing the cost of care provision. Judges also considered the partnership’s advances to increase the size of its professional carer workforce and its ability to provide high-quality care in response to the challenges created by COVID-19.
Enfield Council’s Cabinet Member for Health & Social Care, Cllr Alev Cazimoglu, said:
“I am pleased that Enfield Council, along with partner councils, has been recognised in the LGC Awards shortlist. Enfield’s care homes have worked extremely hard throughout the last 18 months to keep their residents, care givers and staff safe, under extremely difficult and trying circumstances.
"This shortlisting recognises the hard work and dedication of our teams to support many of North London’s most vulnerable residents.”
Prior to the pandemic, the partnership oversaw a recruitment drive to attract more people into the carer workforce, which resulted in more than 900 people registering their interest in roles in North London’s care homes, efforts were also made to focus on improving efficiencies in the local care home market, which reduced expected annual cost increases by £6.5 million.
During the COVID-19 crisis, the partnership put best-practice measures in place to protect residents from the risk of infection, which succeeded in significantly reducing the number of cases in the pandemic’s second wave.