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 Winner of the Wow! of the Year Award Debbie Dougall with manager Rosie Morrison Debbie Dougall from Fife Council's Social Work Service has been awarded this year's 'WOW! Of The Year Award' for her outstanding work with Deaf people. Nominated by her customers, Debbie was short listed for the final held in St. Andrews in the Square, Glasgow. Debbie is based in the Social Work Service's Deaf communication service and has been working with Fife Police to set up an emergency text messaging service for the Deaf and the severely hard of hearing. She was nominated for this piece of work by clients who have made use of the innovative service. In their submission they commended Debbie on her hard work to improve their safety. The new system means that they can contact the emergency services instantly and can be sure of an immediate response. The system has already been put to the test when it was used to alert the Police to send an ambulance to a Deaf person who was having a heart attack. Mr and Mrs Carnegie said in their submission: "Without Debbie I very much doubt that we would have had as much help as that and it leaves us with the knowledge that because of Debbie the Fife Deaf Community have a much easier life without the worries of what to do in Emergencies or fires." Stephen Moore, Executive Director of Social Work Service added his praise: "I am delighted that Debbie has been recognised in this way by her clients, for the hard work and dedication that she shows on a day-to-day basis. Her commitment is an example of the hard working staff that we have within the service who, each day go that extra mile to make the lives of their clients easier." Speaking after the event Debbie said: "I was surprised but delighted to be nominated for this award and really pleased to take the overall award." The Scottish WOW! Of The Year is held as part of the Annual Scottish Awards for Business Excellence Ceremony run by Quality Scotland. The awards now also form a sub-category of The National Customer Service Awards - this is the only category that is based purely on customer nominations. |
