Date: 19 September 2006
Norwood Bags Top Award for its 2005 Annual Report - Easy English Version - Against National and International Competition.
It was celebration time for Norwood yesterday after the Charity picked up the prize for Best Annual Report at the Third Sector Excellence Awards 2006, held at the elegant Grosvenor House Hotel. Norwood's entry in this category, which had been written in Easy English in order to make it accessible to its service users,was good enough to see off stiff competition from eight other charities, including the British Heart Foundation, the RSPCA, Childline and Sightsavers International.
Awards judge Diane Yeo, commenting on Norwood's report, said: It's so different. It really celebrates something. In fact, it's absolutely brilliant.” Stephen Cook, Editor of Third Sector magazine, said: “The boldness of Norwood's annual report had them [the judges] almost lost for words.” Judith Katzler, Norwood's Director Of Business Development, was delighted with the award. She said: “At Norwood, we are always striving to involve our service users as much as possible, because, whatever our role, these are the people for whom we are working.”
Norwood decided to produce a version of its annual report in Easy English as part of a five-year plan to increase the involvement of its service users in the planning of its services. The Charity worked closely with the Plain Language Commission in order to ensure that the report was as accessible as possible. It contains the same information as the conventional report, including a summary of the past year and details of the organisation's finances. However, the inclusion of symbols, large type, simply constructed sentences and photographs of key figures within the organisation, render this information far easier to understand.
The report, designed by communications agency Creative and Commercial, was distributed to all of Norwood's residential homes for adults with learning disabilities. The home managers and service managers went through the report with around 240 service users, who provided very positive feedback. Families of services users were impressed with the format, as were a number of local authorities and major donors who also received a copy.
Click here to download Norwood's 2004-2005 award-winning Easy English Annual Review... (4Mb)
Click here to download Norwood's 2004-2005 Annual Review... (4Mb)
For further information please contact David Wosner, Public Relations Officer at Norwood on 020 8420 6942 or email david.wosner@norwood.org.uk
