Tag: national award

Award for St Columba’s garden volunteer David

We couldn’t be more excited to celebrate David Waughman, who was awarded the ‘Anne, Duchess of Norfolk Award for Volunteer Gardener of the Year’ at the recent Hospice UK Annual Conference!

David has been a dedicated part of our team from the very start, serving as one of our original Compassionate Gardeners. Before that David helped maintain the grounds of St Columba’s Hospice Care, showing his passion for both gardening and volunteering.

Our Compassionate Gardeners are a special group. We’re one of the only UK hospices offering a little TLC to the gardens of people living at home with an end-of-life diagnosis, and helping restore them to what they once were.

Sharing the joy of the garden through the seasons, our Compassionate gardeners add so much to the wellbeing of the garden owners in the most precious of times.

It was truly heart-warming to see David recognised by his colleagues and peers from across the hospice sector. Thank you, David, for your dedication and for the incredible impact you make to those you support. Congratulations on this well-deserved award! 👏🌟

Are you a keen gardener? Find out how you can put your skills to good use by becoming a Compassionate Gardener https://bit.ly/3OH1Wwb.

Partnership Approach to Water Safety (PAWS) wins national award

On average, 96 people lose their lives to a water-related fatality each year in Scotland.

Scotland’s Drowning Prevention Strategy aims to reduce accidental drowning deaths by 50 per cent by 2026 and reduce risk among the highest-risk populations, groups and communities.

These aims are addressed by the collective efforts of the organisation Water Safety Scotland (WSS), and one of the major achievements of WSS is the concept of Partnership Approach to Water Safety (PAWS) groups.

PAWS is a multi-agency approach to raising water safety awareness at a local level. The strength of PAWS is that members have the required knowledge and experience to enable them to best understand water-based risks present in a certain locality.

Written in 2021 by James Sullivan of the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service, PAWS is recognised by subject matter experts as making meaningful contributions to drowning prevention and is WSS’s preferred method for formulating a local water safety group.

PAWS recently won the National Fire Chief’s Council (NFCC) Partnership Award and WSS would like to extend enormous gratitude to SFRS and everyone involved in PAWS who contribute to improving water safety and achieving the outcomes of Scotland’s Drowning Prevention Strategy.

A Water Safety Scotland spokesperson said: “WSS fully support the PAWS process and are very encouraged by the commitment shown by partners throughout Scotland to become involved and contribute to jointly improving water safety.

“Throughout 2021 and 2022 there has been a growing momentum and willingness from partners to work together and PAWS has played a vital part in coordinating these efforts and maintaining consistency and information exchange.

“With the forthcoming launch of the WSS Drowning & Incident Review (DIR), PAWS Groups will play a vital role in delivering comprehensive and consistent reviews of accidental drowning deaths in Scotland.”

WSS actively promotes and supports the establishment of PAWS groups in all 32 of

Scotland’s local authorities. If you wish to enquire about a PAWS group in your local area

please contact info@watersafetyscotland.org.uk where you will be directed you to your local

representative.