Public sector news in brief
HILLINGDON Hillingdon Council is promoting customer service by re-launching its quarterly employee recognition awards, called ‘Not All Heroes Wear Costumes’. Categories include employee of the quarter, front-line team of the quarter and support team of the quarter. The ceremony takes place at Hillingdon Civic Centre on 7 November.
AWARDS Kirklees Council, Pendle Borough Council, Somerset County Council and Ptarmigan PR have been shortlisted for The National Recycling Awards Best Information Campaign. The winners of the award, sponsored by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, were announced at the Ponds Forge Centre in Sheffield on 26 October.
LGA The Local Government Association has hired Southwark Council internal comms manager Ben Dudley as campaign manager on a six-month secondment. Reporting to media and campaigns programme director Edward Welsh, Dudley will help communicate the LGA's progress on its Reputation Project. Nearly 60 councils have signed up to the project's recommended action plan.
BIRMINGHAM The University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust has made Jane Graham acting head of comms following the departure of Jane Farrin. Farrin is moving to the Department for Education and Skills, where she will take up the post of head of corporate comms in November (PRWeek, 7 October).
JOHN HIGGINS Former Lothian Regional Council PR manager John Higgins has died after a swimming accident in the Red Sea. The 37-year-old, who had previously worked for the authority that became Edinburgh City Council, had recently moved to Eilat, having taken a PR job with an undisclosed company in Israel.
