FOR many people the NHS means nurses, doctors, social care and a wide range of specialist clinicians wearing uniform and delivering care.

But behind the scenes is a whole array of other professionals, all playing an integral part in enabling the NHS to function.

They are often referred to as 'support services' and include IT, human resources, estates, procurement, finance, communications and many more.

These services are the backbone of the NHS, ensuring the front line services have what they need to deliver treatment and care to patients, their families and loved ones.

They are often the unsung heroes.

I am immensely proud of our support services here at Wirral Community NHS Foundation Trust, and delighted that they regularly receive regional and national recognition.

Without them this organisation would not be able to function.

Earlier this month our procurement team attended the NHS "Excellence in Supply Awards" in Manchester.

Having recently undertaken a rigorous assessment they were awarded Level One NHS Procurement and Commercial Standards; a fantastic achievement.

They were also highly commended in the 'Supplier engagement' category (having been nominated by one of our suppliers) and Maria Hughes, tissue viability specialist lead, was shortlisted as a "Procurement Champion."

Last week, our finance team received the 'Towards Excellence' level one accreditation from the NHS finance skills development network.

This award requires teams to demonstrate continuous improvement and development and ensures our Trust is properly supported with good financial services and effective financial information.

The assessor praised the team's strong leadership and commitment to finance skills development. Another great accolade.

Meanwhile, our estates team has been shortlisted in three categories in the Sustainable NHS Health and Care Awards for all the work they have done to make our Trust even more environmentally friendly.

We have made enormous progress in our quest to "go green" over the last few years.

We are one of a few community health trusts in the country to have achieved an esteemed ISO 14001-2015 certificate for being environmentally-friendly.

Our latest green schemes include wooden cutlery in the café at St Catherine's Health Centre, recycling aluminium cans, trialling recyclable plastic cups in our water machines and new waterless urinals which will save one million litres of fresh water every year.

Let's hope we scoop a trophy at the national awards ceremony in November!

The NHS could not function without its support services.