A business advisory firm has beaten off competition from household names to scoop a national award for its policies to promote a healthy workplace.

Cooper Parry, with offices in Derby, Nottingham and Leicester, won the 2011 Bupa Workwell Award for Excellence at a gala event in London. It beat national firms such as Deloitte, National Grid and EDF Energy to the award organised by Business in the Community (BITC).

Cooper Parry made it through to the final for its "Looking after Number One" scheme which has already received the coveted National 'Big Tick' for improving the health and wellbeing of its team

This scheme, which has been running for over 18 months, gives its team practical tools and information to improve their general wellbeing.

Jeremy Bowler, chief executive of Cooper Parry, said: "We are delighted to beat national companies to win the 2011 BUPA Workwell Award for Excellence. It is a real coup for Cooper Parry to be recognised for programmes and policies focused on wellbeing.

"The award is a culmination of the investment and commitment we have made in our business to the health and wellbeing of our team and it is great news that we have been recognised for this.

"We hope to continue to create initiatives like this and make them a way of life at Cooper Parry. Aside from the obvious health benefits for our team we have seen significant business benefits in areas such as reduced absence"

Cooper Parry has introduced a number of initiatives to promote a healthy workplace. To date, the initiative has included a dedicated intranet portal with blogs focusing on all aspects of wellbeing, including advice on nutrition and stress management together with fitness tests. 

Other programmes include a six week pedometer challenge to clock up the miles in the workplace as part of the health initiative.

This challenge saw the firm give out free pedometers and invite teams of five to clock up enough mileage to reach the South of France before the end of the six week period. Eighteen teams took part across their three offices in the region and progress was plotted on Google maps each week.

Alex Perry, Director for Healthcare Provisioning, Bupa and Chair of the judging panel 2011, said: "Cooper Parry have dealt with their people's health and wellbeing as an important issue and created a simple and effective programme. 

"They delivered more from less with practical interventions which have been extremely effective in the current economic climate. They showed great leadership and engagement throughout their organisation. Many organisations can certainly learn a great deal from the simplicity and effectiveness of Cooper Parry's programme."

The Big Tick award recognises inspirational programmes that are making a positive impact on the community, the environment or wider society.

For more information about Cooper Parry, please visit their website here: www.cooperparry.com