Dave Thomas: Award winning work

It was great to see the success of this year's Torbay Business Awards that took place at the Riviera Centre last week.

A massive congratulations to all those businesses and individuals who were nominated, shortlisted and to the worthy winners. 

Supporting our businesses of all sizes is important to us, which is why we returned as headline sponsor of the awards. These awards are a vital way to share positivity and congratulate those who are doing well in the Bay and putting us on the map, locally and nationally. 

I am glad to see that Rowcroft Hospice won our sponsored category of Overall Business of the Year, the champion of champions.

They actually celebrated a triple win over the evening, scoping the awards for innovation and inspirational leadership too. Congratulations to you all at Rowcroft for your success and awards. 

The council is also being or going to be represented at two national awards this month. Last week it was a great honour to be part of the group of staff and others who travelled from Torbay to Grosvenor House in London for the Local Government Chronicle Awards.  

Representatives from our Economy Team and representatives from a couple of our business attended after being shortlisted for their work involved with and the delivery of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund here in the Bay. 

We received £1.76m to invest in local priorities and the team pulled together an investment plan to create and develop 14 projects. 

The projects focussed on communities, business and skills and they were all aligned to our Community and Corporate Plan and the local Economic Growth Strategy, making sure the projects were responding to our priorities and vision for Torbay. 

Whilst the team didn’t win the award this time, the judges thought they had made really creative use of the Shared Prosperity funding and that we have got a clear sense of what the real outcomes are that matter to local people. 

They said that the team had positively responded when we received less than the expected funding, and that they had managed the uncertainties around future funding well. 

The judges also commented on the tenacity and sheer excellence demonstrated throughout the entire shortlist and that we should feel immensely proud for being shortlisted. Well done everyone that was involved in ensuring this fund benefited as many people as possible.  

We have also received the great news that our Public Health team have been shortlisted in the Innovation in Reducing Health Inequalities category for this year’s MJ Achievement Awards. The awards were set up to recognise excellent work taking place in local government throughout the UK and the team will find out on Friday June 20 if they have won.  

The award submission, called: ‘Tiny Teeth, Big Impact: Joined-up Approaches to Childhood Toothbrushing’, shows our approach to the concerning deterioration in children’s oral health during and since the COVID-19 pandemic.   

Hospital admission rates for tooth decay resulting in extraction under general anaesthetic in very young children was over three times higher here than across England and the Southwest. Most extractions are in the one to nine age group, reflecting the importance of promoting oral health in early and primary years.  

We’ve been involved with two schemes promoting better oral health in young children. The Big Brush Club works with schools and early years settings to offer supervised toothbrushing for children every day. Apparently, we had the highest uptake across the Southwest with all our primary schools signing up to take part who were in areas of greater inequality.

Our second scheme called Open Wide and Step Inside has seen the Dental Outreach Team go into schools to deliver 45-minute oral health education lessons. Each child received a goody bag containing a toothbrush, toothpaste, two-minute timer and a sticker. Each class received a resource story book for the school library to help the good habits continue.

Following this work the alarming rate of hospital admissions in children and young people in Torbay for tooth decay has slowed and we hope this decrease continues.  

Fingers crossed for the team next week.