MIXING SPOONS WERE drawn for battle as staff competed in a cake bake-off to mark the 25th birthday of St Oswald's Hospice last year. With prizes for the best looking and most tasty confections, the event drew the workforce of 263 together to share a coffee and cake break and to celebrate the charity's quarter century of caring for patients near the end of their lives and supporting their families. Staff are proud to work for St Oswald's Hospice, scoring 91% positive, in third place among mid-sized organisations in our survey. The charity, with 17 sites in and around Newcastle upon Tyne, makes a positive difference in the world, they tell us (90%, second). The hospice has created a workplace culture of caring and fairness where employees feel a strong sense of family (77%) and say they have the support they need to provide a great service (76%). Both are top 10 scores. More than half of the staff work part-time and nearly a quarter have stayed for at least a decade. St Oswald's is committed to looking after the wellbeing of its employees and volunteers as well as patients. Any staff member can request up to six sessions of counselling outside the organisation, no questions asked, and complementary therapies are offered by volunteer therapists at very low cost. The hospice first opened its doors in 1986 after a long fundraising campaign led by Dorothy Jameson, a local woman who wanted to bring to the northeast the hospice services she had seen in London. Staff say James Ellam, the chief executive, runs the operation according to sound moral principles (83%, a top 10 score.) www.stoswaldsuk.org
