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We are delighted to announce that Connected Together is now an accredited Living Wage Employer! This means that every member of staff working for Connected Together will earn a real Living Wage.

In April 2016 the government introduced a higher minimum wage rate for all staff over 25 years of age inspired by the Living Wage campaign.

However, the government’s ‘national living wage’ is not calculated according to what employees and their families need to live.

The real Living Wage rates are higher because they are independently-calculated based on what people need to get by.

The Living Wage Foundation encourages all employers that can afford to do so to ensure their employees earn a wage that meets the costs of living, not just the government minimum.

Connected Together has been acknowledged as an employer that provides above the ‘national living wage’ for its employees to ensure they are able to earn enough to live on.

Nearly 6000 organisations voluntarily choose to pay the real Living Wage because we believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. You can find other organisations who pay the Living Wage here.

Kettering General Hospital and Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire have been shortlisted for a national award for work they have undertaken with young people.

The two organisations entered the Patient Experience Network National Awards (PENNA) in the ‘Team of the Year’ category. The joint entry was called ‘It’s my health – youth voice’ and will be judged alongside three other NHS organisations at the finals on Wednesday March 20, 2019, at The Rep Theatre, Birmingham.

The entry described the way that members of Young Healthwatch were encouraged to carry out a visit to children’s services at KGH in April 2018 from which they documented their findings and produced a report – which was then acted on by the hospital.

The report recommended improvements – which the hospital has made – to children’s services including:

• Improving signs to direct people to children’s services – for example colourful footprints on the floor signposting the paediatric area in A&E
• Adding more colour to paediatric areas to make them more child friendly
• Having more books and games available for children in waiting areas in children’s A&E and outpatients
• Using brightly coloured fun staff name badges so children can better understand who they are talking to

Young Healthwatch Project Manager Esther Stimpson said: “We are delighted that our partnership project with Kettering General Hospital has been shortlisted for this national award.

“We think it was a great example of team working between Young Healthwatch, Healthwatch Northamptonshire and Kettering General Hospital that enabled young people to make a real difference to the environment provided for young people at the hospital.”

Chair of Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire, Tanzi, said: “It has been amazing to work with Kettering General Hospital, every time we visit we see more of the recommendations we have made become reality. It is fantastic that the views of young people are taken on board and acted upon.”

Kettering General Hospital’s Head of Patient Experience and Involvement James Allan said: “The perspective that Young Healthwatch brought was refreshing. We learned a lot from their visit and will be using the new perspective they gave us – looking at things through the eyes of young person – in other pieces of work in the future.

“We plan to continue to work with Young Healthwatch and visit local schools to capture more of the experience of children when they visit hospital – either to be treated or with relatives.”