10 June 2026

Northumbria Healthcare celebrates Community Promise’s birthday with top award for commitment to more than healthcare

CSR award 2026.jpg

A leading NHS trust’s social value programme, which is marking 5 years since it was launched, has landed an international prize for its ‘bold and innovative’ approach.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust was awarded champion status – the highest available – for its Community Promise at the International Social Responsibility Excellence Awards in London this month.

It comes as the trust marks 5 years since the pledge was launched in Berwick in June 2021, when it committed to focus on all the ways it can improve people’s lives and to maximise the impact it can have.

The award citation said: ‘The Community Promise is one of the most ambitious, comprehensive, and impactful social value programmes in the UK public sector.’

It added that it ‘represents a bold and innovative reimagining of what an NHS organisation can contribute to the community it serves’ and a ‘fully embedded organisational commitment that drives measurable social, economic, and environmental value across Northumberland and North Tyneside’.

Dr Birju Bartoli, chief executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We know that the health and wellbeing of our communities is based on a wide range of factors. We also know that our privileged position, as both a local employer and healthcare provider for our communities, means that we have a responsibility to look at all the ways we can make a difference to the people we serve.

"To receive this champion award as we mark 5 years since we launched Our Community Promise is fantastic recognition of the hard work of all involved and the positive impact we are having in Northumberland, North Tyneside and beyond."

Since the launch, plenty of progress has been made against the 5 key pillars, with the trust sharing 5 key ways it has made a difference as part of the anniversary:

  • Education: We’ve hosted hundreds of schoolchildren on work experience placements. We had 344 in the 2024/5 school year.
  • Employment: We’ve supported hundreds of people into NHS careers with our apprenticeships. From 2022 to 2024, we had 456 apprentices and 83% became permanent employees afterwards.
  • Economy: We’re doing more to help local and regional suppliers work with us. In 2025, we spent £29million with them.
  • Environment: We continue to focus on our reducing our environmental impact through our Green Plan. One area is transport – more than 900 staff used sustainable and affordable travel initiatives in 2025.
  • Inequalities: Under our Best Start in Life team, the rate of pregnant women smoking at time of delivery has fallen to 2.7%, well below the national target of 6%, helping give more children a healthier start in life.

In March, a new social impact report from CSR-Accreditation demonstrated how the trust had continued to achieve the gold standard it first achieved in 2020 and deliver benefits to its communities.

Read the latest Keeping Our Community Promise report for 2025.

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