Hospital bed champion recognised as ‘Future Generations Changemaker’

Amanda Davies, the health board’s Service Improvement Manager, is one of only two entries from Swansea to make it onto the Future Generations Changemaker 100 list in Wales.

The other Swansea recipient is the Down to Earth team, which has pioneered building sustainably whilst upskilling young and vulnerable people.

The list has been compiled by Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Sophie Howe, and highlights change makers from across the country who are helping to create change via the Well-being of Future Generations Act. 

Amanda developed the Bed Poverty Relief Scheme at Swansea Bay, a highly innovative initiative that has improved the lives of many.

The project has supplied hundreds of emergency beds from the Covid pandemic to homes where people were experiencing bed poverty and also to nursing and residential homes throughout Wales.

Beds were also donated to a children’s and cancer hospital plus refugee camps in Moldova for Ukrainian people fleeing the war.

In 2022, she helped deliver the largest community-supported agricultural farm on health board premises in the UK, at Morriston.

It will offer volunteering and social prescribing opportunities and deliver affordable organic vegetables on a weekly basis for up to 200 households a year, with surplus going to foodbanks. 

Amanda is also working with colleagues to improve procurement practices in the local NHS supply chains and oversees the integration of art in clinical areas to improve patient well-being.

Amanda, who was one of only eight speakers asked to deliver a presentation during the unveiling of the list at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, said: “It’s an honour to be recognised in this way alongside so many other inspirational people.

“It was a moment of great pride when the Commissioner’s office asked that I speak at the event and share the work that has been done on the beds.

“However, I have not worked in isolation and recognise that without the fantastic support from people within the health board, shared services, Welsh Government and partners, including Swansea Council, Neath Port Talbot Council, our two councils for voluntary service, the Communication Workers Union, MS Jeremy Miles and his office, and local removal company Britannia Robbins, none of this would have been possible. 

“It has been my absolute privilege and honour to have worked with such a great team.”  

The team recently went on to pick up a National Health Care Supply Association Cross-Functional Collaboration Award for its work.

Of the scheme itself she said: “Diverting these beds from landfill was the right thing to do but more importantly, had we not donated these beds it would have been a senseless waste to our society.”

Amanda said she had been inspired to devise the scheme after hearing about bed poverty.

She said: “Children’s development is significantly harmed by the lack of a bed.

“A child who does not have a bed to sleep in cannot concentrate at school. It impacts negatively on both their physical and mental wellbeing and affects their future life chances. This will only widen the inequality gap that exists in our society.”

Amanda encouraged everyone to help each other more, to help create resilient communities. 

She said: “As a health board we must not lose sight of the preventative agenda – all public bodies are having to do more with less.

“A small act of kindness, such as donating a bed or thinking and doing differently such as establishing a Community Supported Agricultural farm or having a different approach to how we procure our goods and services in reality, has a big impact upon our population’s health.  

“I’m delighted that as a health board we are continually striving for a better future, a Wales that we want to see and live in.”

Swansea Bay CEO, Mark Hackett, said: “I would like to congratulate Amanda on being named on the Future Generations Changemaker 100 list.

“In particular she has been instrumental, along with her team, in delivering the initiative to reallocate surplus beds to those most in need at home and abroad – something which epitomises the values of our health board.”

Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Sophie Howe, said: “Wales’ well-being legislation puts an obligation on public bodies to act outside of the status quo, this list is about recognising just some of the people demonstrating what happens when we put well-being first, work together and consider the long-term implications of our actions, and highlights the need to support change makers so that they can improve society for everyone.”

Current Future Generations Commissioner, Sophie Howe will be stepping down from the role in early 2023 to be replaced by Derek Walker.

(Lead image: Swansea Bay NHS)