17th October 2007

A Wirral woman is celebrating today after beating off the challenge of hundreds of entrants to be named one of the best of British at the final of Remploy’s 11th annual Leading the Way awards.

Hilary Gibson from the Child Support Agency based in Great Western House on the Woodside Ferry Approach won the Outstanding Business Individual category at the final in London and was presented with the coveted award by entrepreneur and former Dragon’s Den TV show ‘dragon’ Richard Farleigh.

Remploy is the country’s leading provider of employment services for disabled people and the prestigious awards, run this year in association with The Times, recognise outstanding employers and individuals who have made significant efforts to actively encourage diversity within their organisations.

Hilary Gibson was one of eight businesses and individuals honoured at the awards final at the Victoria Plaza hotel in London on 15 October 2007 and she was delighted to have come out top of entrants from across Britain.

“I would like to thank Remploy for this very prestigious award although I am quite taken aback to receive such an acknowledgement for simply doing my job!” said Hilary. “This is an individual award but I have had tremendous support and the encouragement of my team and my colleagues. I am pleased to work for an organisation that focuses on ability to do the job as their priority.”

Remploy chief executive Bob Warner said this important award recognised an individual’s efforts to drive and promote the employment of disabled people in their organisation.

“The judges felt that Hilary had clearly taken on considerably more personal responsibility than her role required. They felt there was excellent evidence of her understanding of the individual needs of disabled employees. The judges were particularly impressed by the range of initiatives introduced by Hilary and the impact of her personal commitment.”

The initial contenders were whittled down to an early shortlist and then six regional finals earlier this month narrowed the field down even further but Hilary Gibson took the Outstanding Business Individual award in the Northern region to qualify for the national final.

Apart from this award won by Hilary, a separate award was also made to the Outstanding Jobcentre Plus Individual of the year, named as Julia Burden from Bristol.

Awards were also on offer to businesses in six categories:

• Learning
• Retention
• Innovation
• Small businesses/organisations (fewer than 100 employees)
• Medium businesses/organisations (between 101 – 1,000 employees)
• Large businesses/organisations (more than 1,000 employees)

Richard Farleigh told guests that it made business sense for companies to be inclusive and a caring working environment generated respect.

He added: “We should be looking at all angles to get the right people. It is the mark of a good business that it is able to do that.”

Mr Warner told the audience at the awards: “It is always a privilege to applaud those businesses and individuals that go the extra mile in the employment of disabled people.

“Thanks to the example that many of you in this room have set, more employers are understanding the benefits of employing disabled people and helping to create a level playing field for disabled job seekers.”

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