The Health Squad team in County Durham have been crowned winners in the prestigious Health Service Journal (HSJ) Partnership Awards 2026, celebrating excellence, innovation, and collaborative working across healthcare.
For nearly half a century, the HSJ has recognised NHS teams and partners who are driving improvements in patient safety, service transformation, and health outcomes. This year, Health Squad were awarded the Most Impactful Project Addressing Health Inequalities.
Alan Hodgson, Programme Lead said: “Health Squad is still a young service, we first began supporting clients from hard‑to‑reach communities in 2023. To be officially recognised for our work – just three years on – is an outstanding achievement and testament to the team’s dedication.”
The team works with individuals and communities across County Durham to tackle health inequalities. Their clients include people at risk of homelessness or living in supported accommodation, vulnerable migrants, veterans, and those from GRT communities – groups who have historically struggled to access primary healthcare.
By providing outreach-based full health assessments in community venues and drop-in centres, the team has delivered impressive outcomes. Between April 2024 and March 2025, Health Squad supported 815 clients, 678 of whom received full health assessments.
- 64% of those assessed identified health improvement goals
- 84% went on to achieve those goals
This HSJ recognition is not their only recent success. The team was also shortlisted alongside Health Diagnostics in the 2025/26 Health Tech News (HTN) Now Awards in the Healthcare Improvement and Operations Transformation category. This nomination highlighted their work with the Health Options® platform, a tailored digital consultation tool. Although they didn’t take first place, they were named highly commended runners‑up – a remarkable accomplishment for such a new service.
Health Squad is commissioned by Durham County Council and delivered in partnership by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust and the Pioneering Care Partnership.
Find out more about the work of Health Squad here.
