Congratulations to Wendy for winning the Gold award at Surrey and Border’s Staff Awards

Surrey’s Coalition’s Wendy Smith has won an award for her work with Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Wendy was presented with the Gold award for Involvement and Contribution at Surrey and Border’s Staff Awards.

As part of the Coalition’s mental health team, Wendy has spent the last four and a half years helping Surrey and Borders understand what matters most to people with lived experience of using mental health services, their families and carers.

During the development of Silverwood, Surrey’s new inpatient service in Chertsey, Wendy represented the voices of people with lived experience when decisions were being made. Many of Silverwood’s design features were shaped by the experiences and opinions that people generously shared with Wendy, to ensure the needs of a wide spectrum of people could be understood by the design team. People were kept up to date on the latest developments and asked their opinions on other decisions during the Lived Experience Group meetings which Wendy co-chaired.

Alongside the Silverwood project, Wendy has worked on the Community Mental Health Transformation Programme, and the development of new Integrated Neighbourhood Mental Health Teams. Hundreds of people shared their views with Wendy and the project team about the barriers to accessing mental health services in the community and how that could be improved.

Wendy was nominated by Colette Lane, Professional Lead for Lived Experience Development. Colette said “Wendy has led vital work in the Community Transformation Project, ensuring the voices of people who use services, carers and families are genuinely heard. Her compassion, integrity and commitment to co-production inspire others and keep lived experience at the heart of change. Wendy consistently makes a difference through her ability to build trust and engage people in honest, open conversations. She creates safe, inclusive spaces where people who use services, carers and families feel able to share candid feedback. Wendy then clearly and thoughtfully feeds this insight back to SABP, directly influencing service design decisions. As a result, proposed changes have been more responsive, inclusive and grounded in real experience, strengthening both the quality and credibility of the Community Transformation Project.”

Wendy said she was pleasantly surprised to be nominated for the award for Involvement and Contribution, stunned to be shortlisted, and astounded to win the Gold Award. She said, “I feel the award is not about me, but about recognising the importance of meaningfully involving people with lived experience in designing, developing and delivering services which they or their loved ones use. I have been lucky enough to spend the last 4 years working with people to understand their priorities for mental health services in both community and inpatient environments, and ensuring Surrey and Borders take these views and experiences into account.”

Well done Wendy!