And the Winners Are…

Congratulations to all of our Finalists to the VRA Awards Ceremony yesterday. It was fantastic listening to all that you have achieved in 2023 and the progress that has been made in VR across the country.

12 AMAZING Finalists – but each category can only have 1 Winner.

So without further a due please congratulate your 2023 VRA Award Winners:

Project of the year Award

Into Work – Mental Health UK
“Since Into Work launched in April 2023, we have seen some incredibly positive results across our 3 pilot locations (Gravesend, Harrow and Wrexham)
Into Work’s approach builds on the evidence-based Individual Placement and Support (IPS)1 model which research shows leads to higher rates of employment and total earnings than other employment models. We combine the IPS Framework with wraparound wellbeing support that looks at the holistic needs of a person – their finances, housing, social connectedness, mental health support and more, before piecing together a bespoke action plan to support them into employment.”

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Practitioner of the Year Award

Nisha Kotecha
Nisha qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 2015 and moved into inpatient and then community OT roles, moving to work in a multidisciplinary team within the MOD Rehabilitation assessing functional and cognitive skills of serving personnel with acquired/traumatic brain injuries. Nisha started working in the Long Covid Service at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust as a Vocational Rehabilitation Occupational Therapist in October 2022

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Team of the Year Award

Phelps Case Management Ltd
Phelps Case Management was founded in 2019 and has a focus on supporting clients who can fall through the cracks with Vocational Case Management due to cognitive, behavioural and/or psychological barriers.  Two of the three-person team are VRA members and have extensive Vocational experience – 32 years’ worth collectively. Two have Clinical Case Management experience specialising in Traumatic Brain Injuries and psychological challenges, both being CMSUK and BABICM members. By combining the knowledge and experience of the whole team, utilising a true transdisciplinary approach with other MDT members; Phelps Case Management brings an effective and unique approach to Vocational Rehabilitation within the Brain & Psychological Injury spectrum

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VR Champion of the Year

Mandy Kelly

Mandy is a registered Occupational Therapist who for over 25 years in both Australia and the UK. She  has qualifications in ergonomics, is an NLP and MODAPTS practitioner, Functional Capacity Evaluator, OT Driver Assessor and has professional leadership, clinical governance, medico-legal and case management expertise. She has designed and conducted OH and VR assessments, functional capacity evaluations,  ergonomic evaluations, functional rehabilitation programmes in various industries including oil and gas, mining, manufacturing and construction to office-based government departments, health and education facilities. She pioneered the OT service provision for Atos Healthcare OH company within the Royal Mail OH service to deliver a new service to reduce sickness absence, return workers to substantive roles after many years of modified duties and improve work practices of employees. She assessed and compiled a suite of job demands analyses for the large and varied business roles and introduced functional capacity evaluations, job demands analyses to the OH service. Mandy has also held other roles in OH and VR, including Head of Professional Services of a personal injury rehabilitation company where she developed and implemented the clinical audit programme, professional development and clinical supervision programme for the multi-disciplinary team. She then moved into self-employment to deliver expert services in occupational health, vocational rehabilitation and case management for some years.

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An event sponsored by Form Health