TWO Primary Care Trusts in South Durham are celebrating being recommended for a national award.

The Durham Dales and Sedgefield primary care trusts (PCT) have been recommended for Practice Status in the Improving Working Lives (IWL) accreditation process.

To achieve the award, which is a Department of Health initiative, the trusts went through a four-day assessment involving teams from other NHS organisations.

Each trust presented a portfolio of written evidence highlighting policies, procedures and initiatives in place to improve the working lives of staff.

The IWL team then visited the trusts and met as many staff groups as possible.

The trusts were assessed in eight key areas: Human resource strategy and management, equality and diversity, communication and staff involvement, flexible working, healthy working, training and development, staff benefits and child care and staff attitude survey.

Anne Beaton, chairwoman of the Durham Dales trust, said: "Everyone at the PCT has worked hard during the past year to improve the quality of working lives for all our staff and have looked at key areas for improvement that would help and support them.

"The IWL award recognises that the PCT has been able to demonstrate through assessment that it is committed to making real improvements to the working lives of our staff."

Alan Gray, chairman of Sedgefield trust, said: "I am delighted that the PCT has been recommended to receive the award of Practice Status in the Improving Working Lives accreditation process.

"Feedback from the assessment team was very positive and we scored particularly well on communication and staff involvement.

"The assessors also recognised that the PCT has made, and continues to make, a concerted effort to improve and develop in all of the eight dimensions against which we were examined."

He said: "I would like to thank all staff for their support during the assessment and for working with us over the past year to find ways to make a real difference and improve working lives.

"I hope that we can continue to work together to improve the quality of lives for everyone in Sedgefield PCT."