As we know, our teams are the lifeblood of our organisations, and the work we do stands or falls on how well they are treated, respected, and empowered to do their jobs well.
In my own organisation, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, we've just celebrated our first-ever Directorate Staff Excellence Awards, where we had the opportunity to share the collaboration, innovation and dedication of the hard working teams all across our directorate, including our catering staff.
And on a wider scale, many of us are looking forward to celebrating the successful projects, the commitment, and the creativity of our catering teams from right across the public sector at the Public Sector Catering Awards on 24 April.
You will know by now that this year saw a record number of entries, and as I've been privileged to judge these for the past few years, I've been staggered by the number of submissions.
But it's not the volume of submissions that's important to me: it's the quality and the stories of the hard work of individuals and teams in diverse roles right across our sector.
The awards present a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the catering assistants, cooks, and chefs who are serving meals every day to customers with passion and compassion.
They are about celebrating those who support front-line delivery in back-of-house roles, without whom we'd never be able to feed patients, pupils, residents or guests with such dignity and care.
The awards also represent the best of partnership working - the collaboration and the cross-sector relationships between suppliers, producers, distributors, caterers, managers, and support staff that is just fantastic, and shows real dedication to systems change.
I'm looking forward to hearing more detail about each and every finalist, sharing their anticipation and learning from their experience and transformation journeys together.
I'm also really looking forward to the meal, which has been crafted and made by the winners of the Chef of the Year Competitions held by ASSIST FM, HCA, LACA and NACC.
In this way we are truly showcasing the excellent skills of our chefs from right across the sector, and across the UK.
We are rightly putting their skills on display at such a prestigious venue in London. I do hope I'll see you there.
