News

We are proud to announce that our North Central London (NCL) Vanguard Service, has won the prestigious HSJ Annual Award in the category of ‘Mental Health Innovation of the Year’.

The North Central London Vanguard is an innovative psychologically-led service that offers accessible, holistic wellbeing support to marginalised children and young people (CYP) affected by serious youth violence and offending. 

The service is commissioned by NHS England and co-produced in partnership with CYP, families, communities, NHS, councils, and voluntary care sector organisations in Camden, Islington, Haringey, Enfield and Barnet. 

It proactively engages deprived and excluded CYP who fall through the net of mainstream services to create positive health outcomes, and seeks to re-address health and social inequalities contributing to vulnerability to poor mental health and offending.

The judging panel commended the service for their “impactful presentation, with genuine family voices, highlighting the long-term benefits of a service reaching hundreds of vulnerable young people. Congratulations to the team for their dedication to improving community mental wellbeing.” 

This year, the HSJ Awards received over 1,350 entries from across the UK, celebrating excellence, innovation, and commitment to healthcare improvement.

Suchi Bhandari, Director of NCL Vanguard services , said “We are very honoured to receive this accolade for a prestigious national award. This is great recognition for the work our brilliant teams do, the expertise and multi-agency approach our partnerships provide and most importantly for the exceptional engagement and work with our children and young people, families and communities we serve. I am very proud to be able to lead the North Central London Vanguard services and look forward to continuing this amazing work in the future”

Fatima Bibi, Delivery Lead, added “All the shortlisted services in this category were brilliant and therefore winning this award makes it even more special. A huge thank you to our partners, young people and communities for their invaluable contributions to the NCL Vanguard. A special thank you to the teams for their tireless work, dedication and unwavering commitment in supporting some of our most marginalised and vulnerable young people.

Additionally, our Hope FX Partnership was also shortlisted ‘in the category of ‘Early Intervention and Prevention for Children, Young People and Families Award’.

Read more about the awards on the HSJ website.