A GROUP from Northallerton working with the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust has won a major national accolade from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

In the RCP’s annual awards the Northallerton group has been named Psychiatric Team of the Year 2015 for a team involved with working-age adults

The annual awards mark the highest level of achievement within psychiatry, and are designed to recognise and reward excellent practice in the field of mental health.

The team from Ward 15 at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton was presented with the award by Dr Geraldine Strathdee, the national clinical director of mental health for NHS England.

Members of the judging panel said they were impressed by the quality of this year’s entries. The judges were looking for a team demonstrating service development, redesign or quality improvement, with excellent leadership, teamwork, and effective use of resources.

In their findings the judges said: “We were impressed by the way the Friarage team centred their concept of care around patients and carers, while involving every member of the ward team in the process.

“The team conveyed a clear description of how they had made use of Quality Improvement methodology as intrinsic to this process.”