- Kable, Wednesday 25 November 2009 11.25 GMT
Tell Us Once, run by LB Southwark with Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, took The Guardian's Public Service Award for partnership working at a ceremony on 25 November.
It marks an early success for the government programme, proposed in Sir David Varney's Service Transformation report of 2006, aimed at reducing the number of times people have to contact public bodies when their circumstances change.
The pilot has concentrated on the situation highlighted in the Varney review, passing on information about a death to other agencies. Families go to a bereavement service in St Thomas' Hospital, where full time officers provide advice on notifying council departments. The council has provided hospital staff with basic benefits training, while hospital counsellors have given council staff support on dealing with bereaved parents.
The service is due to be introduced across the NHS early next year.
