Awards and recognition in 2023
This page lists the awards we've won so far in 2023.
ACG (Anti-Counterfeiting Group) Awards for Excellence 2023
The council's trading standards team were awarded the Departmental Special Commendation Award at the ACG Awards for Excellence. In addition, officers Dennis Chalmers and Darren Hughen were awarded the Dave Hankinson Memorial Award for Individual Excellence in Anti-Counterfeiting Enforcement – the first time the award has ever been given to 2 individual officers. These awards were presented in response to the team tracing and confiscating millions of pounds worth of fake goods from organised crime networks.
The ACG is an international association respected as one of the world's leading specialists in the fight against the growing global trade in counterfeit goods.
Sitemorse Q4 2023 Local Government INDEX
The council's website came 4th out of almost 400 websites tested in the Sitemorse Local Government INDEX for the fourth quarter (October–December) in 2023. As part of this assessment, this website also scored 10/10 for Accessibility. Sitemorse tested over 150,000 pages across 1,231 websites in the following sectors: Government and Public Bodies, UK and IE Universities, UK London-listed PLCs and UK Local Government.
In the UK Local Government sector, the INDEX ranks local government websites across the whole UK for areas including performance, compliance, accessibility and quality. This award demonstrates our commitment to making our website accessible to all.
Rochdale Diversity Awards – Winner, Cohesion Award
The council's youth service was awarded the Cohesion Award at the Rochdale Diversity Awards event. This award is for an individual, group, or organisation in the private, public, or voluntary and community sectors that has made an outstanding contribution to championing and/or improving cohesion within the borough.
Highlighted events included learning about the festivals of Easter, Ramadan and Passover, which took place at the same time in 2023. There was also the Rochdale Youth Pride Event, which saw LGBT young people, allies, organisations and youth workers come together to enjoy arts, activities, sports, games, face painting and glitter. A Black History Month Event was also held with the Nigeria Association where young people shared a traditional West African meal, enjoyed a drumming workshop, learnt about traditional Nigerian dress and spent some time learning about historical figures.
Health Service Journal (HSJ) Patient Safety Awards 2023 – Winner, Integrated Care Initiative of the Year
Colleagues working in Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale (HMR) Local Care Organisation were crowned winners in the prestigious Health Service Journal awards in the category Integrated Care Initiative of the Year for putting communities at the heart of decision making.
HMR’s Local Care Organisation involves numerous organisations working closely together such as primary care, hospital services, mental health services, social care, community, voluntary sectors and wider public services such as housing.
Residents in HMR benefit from better outcomes thanks to this integrated way of working, which helps to improve the lives of local communities.
Integration has helped contribute to a sustained reduction in A&E attendances and hospital admissions and means care can be provided closer to home, keeping people out of hospital.
Health Service Journal (HSJ) Patient Safety Awards 2023 – Finalist
Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group (HMR CCG) and Pennine Care in Partnership with Rochdale Borough Council were shortlisted for the prestigious HSJ Patient Safety Health Awards for a whole system approach to Children’s Mental Health.
Our whole system transformation in supporting children's mental health at the earliest stage has resulted in significant reduction in crisis demand for children's mental health. This resulted in fewer children attending Accident and Emergency for self-harm than the national average and a reduction in Tier 4 child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) admissions.
Our response was co-designed by children and young people with their families, and delivers an innovative approach to support and care. This co-designed outcomes focused approach, alongside a rich voluntary and community sector offer, drawing upon social prescribing ensures a multi-disciplinary collaborative approach and co-design is embedded at every stage.
Municipal Journal (MJ) Awards – Care and Health Integration 2023
Rochdale Borough Council and HMR Integrated Care Board have created a multi-agency alliance to improve support and outcomes for Rochdale’s 7,106 children and young people requiring special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support. Raising Rochdale's SEND Alliance includes those with lived experience as well as professionals responsible for making key decisions.
The alliance has mapped early intervention offers to recognise gaps and patterns and developed a strong information sharing system. It is creating a multi-agency data dashboard which will include data from health, local authority, education and social care as well as indicators that come directly from children, young people and families.
The team worked with children and young people with SEND and their families to create a set of outcomes which underpin its actions. To reduce the demand for specialist therapies, a minimum standard has been developed for early help services and the team has worked to ensure families are aware of what is on offer.
Since the creation of the alliance, more children are receiving early intervention and support, enhanced the input of young people, and commissioned 3 new peer-led projects.
North West in Bloom 2023
We and our partner organisations were awarded an incredible 25 gold awards, including:
- Best small cities – Rochdale in Bloom, Middleton in Bloom
- Best large towns – Heywood in Bloom, Pennines
- Best town centres – Rochdale, Middleton and Heywood. Heywood town centre was voted the best in the category.
- Small commercial – Pinnacle Living and Zen Internet
- Large commercial – Heywood Distribution Park
- Commercial effort winner – Zen Internet
- Best retail – Pinnacle Living, Birtle
- Large parks – Queen's Park, Heywood and Denehurst Park, Rochdale
- Large village – Norden in Bloom
- Pocket park – Jubilee Park, Norden
- Small park – Hopwood Park, Heywood, Jubilee Park, Middleton and Hare Hill Park, Littleborough
- Best small tourist attraction – Healey Dell Heritage Centre and Tea Rooms
- Large tourist attraction – Hollingworth Lake and Watergrove Reservoir
- Best urban community – Spotland and Falinge, Kirkholt and Balderstone
- Best mosque – Golden Mosque, Rochdale
- Large accommodation – Pinnacle Living, Birtle
- Small accommodation – The Flying Horse Hotel
We and our partner organisations were also awarded 4 silver gilt awards, including:
- Large town – Littleborough and Wardle
- Urban community – Healey, Syke and Shawclough
- Small retail – Face Medical Clinic
Balderstone Park, Green Flag Award
Balderstone Park in Rochdale has been recognised as one of the best in the country, receiving Green Flag status for the first time to add to the borough's 10 other award-winning parks. This international award recognises and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces.
The park, which can easily be reached by foot, bus or car, boasts many facilities, including a popular skate park, free parking, and accessible play facilities for all ages and a local library.
Sitemorse Q3 2023 Local Government INDEX
The council's website came 5th out of almost 400 websites tested in the Sitemorse Local Government INDEX for the third quarter (July–September) in 2023. As part of this assessment, this website also scored 10/10 for Accessibility, the only local authority website to do so out of all 1,231 websites tested by Sitemorse, for the second quarter in a row. Sitemorse tested over 150,000 pages across 1,231 websites in the following sectors: Government and Public Bodies, UK and IE Universities, UK London-listed PLCs and UK Local Government.
In the UK Local Government sector, the INDEX ranks local government websites across the whole UK for areas including performance, compliance, accessibility and quality. This award demonstrates our commitment to making our website accessible to all.
Green Flag Awards
11 of the parks managed and maintained by the council across the borough of Rochdale have achieved a well-deserved Green Flag Award once again for 2022–2023.
This international award recognises and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces. It's a sign to the public that the space boasts the highest possible environmental standards, is kept beautifully maintained and has excellent visitor facilities.
Sitemorse Q2 2023 Local Government INDEX
The council's website came 4th out of almost 400 websites tested in the Sitemorse Local Government INDEX for the second quarter (April–June) in 2023. As part of this assessment, this website scored 10 for Accessibility, the only local authority website to do so out of all websites tested by Sitemorse.
The INDEX ranks local government websites across the whole UK for areas including performance, compliance, accessibility and quality. This demonstrates our commitment to making our website accessible to all.
GeoPlace Exemplar Awards 2023
The council's Highways Team received a Gold Award for Street Data for working with local government departments and for helping utilities plan works.
GeoPlace is the central source of information for all UK addresses and streets, including more than 42.8 million addresses and 1.3 million streets in the UK. Their annual Exemplar Awards recognise outstanding contributions to the management or use of street and address data in the UK.
Disability Confident
Disability Confident is a government scheme designed to encourage employers to recruit and retain disabled people and those with health conditions. A self-assessment is undertaken every 2 years to ensure we still meet the criteria and can retain the status.
Internet Crystal Mark 2023
The council's website achieved the Internet Crystal Mark for the 10th consecutive year. This award demonstrates our commitment to plain English throughout the website.
Sitemorse Q1 2023 Local Government INDEX
The council's website came 6th out of over 400 websites tested in the Sitemorse Local Government INDEX for the first quarter (January–March) in 2023.
The INDEX ranks over 400 local government websites across the whole UK for areas including performance, compliance, accessibility and quality. This demonstrates our commitment to making our website accessible to all.
ACE Staff Awards
The ACE Staff Awards are annual awards to celebrate and recognise the achievements of staff across the council.
The winners were presented with their awards at a special ceremony on Thursday, 16 March 2023, and this ceremony was our 4th time hosting these awards. The winners were:
- Young Employee of the Year Award 2022: Bryony Walters
- Inspiring Change Award 2022: Sean Beech
- Team of the Year Award 2022: Junction 19 team
- Community Action Award 2022: Nicola Gent
- Employee of the Year 2022: Neil Helliwell
- Learner of the Year 2022: Hasnain Aslam
- ACE Outstanding Contribution 2022: Aileen Bollard