Two of our organisation’s leaders have been awarded an NHS SW Leadership Recognition Award for their work to increase diversity at Board level in our city.

Chief Executive Julia Clarke and Non-Executive Director Poku Osei were awarded the Inclusive Leader Award at a ceremony in Bristol Pavillion on Friday 11th November.

The award recognises their work in creating a development programme to support aspiring Non-Executive Directors from diverse backgrounds, run in partnership with the University of West of England’s ‘Diversity Advantage’ project.

Poku Osei was the first aspiring Non-Executive Director to benefit from the programme in 2015, when he was appointed to a 2 year long development post on Bristol Community Health’s Board.

Over the long term the programme will create a pool of experienced candidates from diverse backgrounds available to take up board-level positions in other organisations across the city.

Julia and Poku said: “We believe that taking steps to diversify thinking at the highest level in our organisation will benefit our communities and patients. For this reason we’re delighted to win this award.”

Bristol Community Health is a not for profit social enterprise and CIC. Over the last 5 years the organisation has supported over 100,000 people in Bristol through 1.2 million moments of care.

The organisation is passionate about celebrating diversity within the workplace and in the communities it serves. Since its inception the social enterprise has also provided interpreting support at over 75,000 patient appointments and provided over 50 volunteering opportunities and 9 apprenticeships.

Bristol Community Health is staff owned and has an ethos of inclusive leadership across the organisation – the Chair of the elected staff council also sits on the Board as a Non-Executive Director.