L-R Cherron Inko-Tariah MBE, Sam Ogunkoya and Professor Patrick Version

Sam Ogunkoya has won a prestigious National BAME Health and Care Award for being the most ‘Inspiring Diversity and Inclusion Lead’ of the year. The awards event took place at the Royal College of Physicians headquarters in central London on 9 June and brought together NHS health and care workers from all over the country.

Sam won the award for his dedication, commitment and leadership as part of ELFT’s Community Mental Health Transformation programme. Sam is recognised as a role model for his work to improve access, experience and outcomes for BAME service users and staff across City & Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets.

An important part of Sam’s day-to-day role is to liaise with BAME communities and ensure that NHS and other health organisations can understand and make inspired changes to systems that need improving or new ways of working.

NHS colleagues testified to the huge impact he has on the whole of ELFT and its partner organisations. He was instrumental in the creation of the ‘Let’s Talk Report’ which documented experiences of BAME communities with mental health services. The report provided a strong basis for health teams and organisations to make practical change. It documents peoples’ experiences and shows that everyone can have an impact for positive change.

Sam was thrilled to win the award. He said,

“ELFT's People Participation team is committed to the vision of making our Trust a health system leader in terms of equality and inclusion. This means working alongside grassroots community services as equals, developing genuine co-production with people that use our services and most importantly, giving power to the voices of people from minority communities so as to reduce power imbalances in service structures. I'm proud to work in a team and for an organisation that knows how important this is.”

Chief Operating Officer for ELFT Edwin Ndlovu said: 

"Congratulations to Sam - this is great news, and very much deserved. It is recognition for a colleague who consistently champions equality and challenges racism across a wide and diverse range of areas. Sam represents the very best of those colleagues who are working hard to make the NHS a leader in terms of making diversity and equality an everyday reality."

ELFT BAME Staff Network Lead, Graham Manyere was a finalist, for the BAME Nurse of the Year. ELFT's Chief Nurse and Deputy CEO Lorraine Sunduza spoke warmly about both finalists:

“Well done to both Sam and Graham for making it to the final, and well done Sam for winning national Lead of the Year. I'm proud to work with colleagues like Sam and Graham - colleagues who are committed to ensuring that our trust values of care, respect and inclusivity has real meaning.”

To find out more about the awards and to see a full list of all finalists for all categories visit the National BAME Health & Care Awards website: https://bamehscawards.org/