The finalists for Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust’s Celebrating Excellence Awards 2025 have been announced, as the countdown to the celebratory event on Friday 26 September continues.

A huge congratulations goes out to all teams and individuals who have been nominated; the Trust is incredibly proud of you. This year we received a record number of nominations, all of an exceptionally high standard.

The finalists for this year’s awards are as follows:

Team of the Year Award

This award recognises teams who work flexibly and collaboratively, with a ‘can do’ approach to overcoming barriers, delivering continuous improvements for patients, service users and/ or staff.

  • LeDeR Team

“The team quietly go about exceptional high quality review standards, speaking to family, service users, carers and health and social care professionals on a daily basis. The team take care of each other’s wellbeing implementing team ‘walkie talkies’ for their team meetings in a bid to have time and space to be creative and to connect and support each other. When a new member started in the team recently, they told me that it is the best team they have ever worked in!”

  • Community Enhanced Rehabilitation Team

“I observed excellent teamwork throughout; from the continuous adaptation of daily diaries to accommodate patients’ changing mental health needs to the professionalism during multi-disciplinary meetings where each staff member puts the patient at the core of everything they do. This included one incident of staff supporting a patient attend A&E which took them outside their normal working hours.”

  • Our Future Our Way Change Leaders Team

“This is a team of professionals from a diverse background of 80+ employees including our service users. The Change Leaders have gone above and beyond their job role to contribute to the Trust’s culture and embed the mission, vision and strategy. This team has developed four key priorities to align with the staff survey results. The Change Leaders collaborated with and co-designed deliverables with staff across the Trust, including the People and Culture Committee and various staff networks.”

 

Excellence in Partnerships Award

This award recognises work to develop integrated, person-centred services through multi-agency working/ partnership arrangements with local agencies, voluntary organisations and community groups which has brought about positive outcomes.

  • Neighbourhood Mental Health Cafes

“The partnership involves 16 voluntary sector organisations who deliver 41 cafes across LLR per week, with many cafes located in areas of high health and social needs. The scheme has provided direct support to 8,451 people in 2024/25 who have been able to drop-in to get help without the need to book an appointment. The partnership reflects the diversity of the LLR population and organisations both represent and truly understand the needs of the community they support.”

  • South Charnwood Health Visiting Team with Bethany Merison and Bethan Dodge

“We have seen over 200 children under five plus lots of pregnant women. The liaison has been far and wide and has included interpreters, allied health professionals (OT’s, physios, care navigators, care coordinators, midwives, GP’s, SALT) plus the MOD staff which includes medical liaison, Safeguarding Team and Welfare Team.”

  • CAMHS Crisis and Home Treatment Team

“The Crisis Team constantly reflect and review practice to consider the needs of the children, young people (CYP), their parents and carers who access the service as well as partner agencies to ensure this is of high quality, safe, effective and efficient. They review care pathways in collaboration with colleagues at UHL to move CYP out of the emergency department (ED) in a timely way.”

 

Delivering Exceptional Care Award

Awarded to a team or individual who has delivered exceptional care.

  • Diana On-call Nursing Team

“This team is dedicated and committed to ensuring that each child’s death is supported and dignified, and wrap around family centred care is delivered. The team can find themselves going from a ‘normal’ routine visit to then having to prioritise end of life care at the drop of a hat and in response to the child’s needs should the parents call.”

  • Alexander Mitchell

“Professor Mitchell has made exceptional and sustained contributions to psychiatry and psycho-oncology over a 30-year NHS career. Professor Mitchell is a tireless advocate for parity between mental and physical healthcare. His career reflects visionary leadership, academic excellence, and deep compassion. Respected by colleagues and patients alike, he is undoubtedly one of the most influential British psychiatrists of his generation and a truly deserving nominee for this prestigious award.”

  • Annette Shawcross

“Dr Shawcross has been kind and caring and compassionate when necessary eg. during very emotional discussions like end of life plan, resuscitation. All these conversations have been considerate and she has delivered upsetting information with compassion. We are grateful for all she has done and believe she individually contributed to better health outcomes and quality of life.”

 

Excellence in Enabling Services Award

This award recognises the work undertaken by our enabling services to support the Trust to create high quality compassionate care and wellbeing for all.

  • Jamie Preston

“Jamie knowledgeably uses their lived experience of mental health to empower others on their recovery journeys. Their contributions have been central to enhancing both online and in-person courses across Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland. What sets Jamie apart is their genuine, values-driven approach to co-production and partnership. Their work shows how lived experience, when respected and embedded, leads to responsive, effective, and person-centred services.”

  • SystmOne ePrescribing Project Team

“The vision was to deliver and mobilise clinicians to issue prescriptions from within the electronic patient record. This led to LPT being the first non-GP service within Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland to use Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) solution. This has been a game changer which immediately increased efficiencies in how clinicians and admin work, with a reduction in time taken to process prescriptions by 50% and allowed clinicians to work more agilely from any location.”

  • Facilities Team

“I am nominating the facilities team due to their exceptional dedication to maintaining a clean and safe environment, supporting colleagues and patients in all areas accessing our services, delivering frontline services to patients and supporting all teams with facilities activities and more when needed. They consistently go above and beyond to ensure all of our activity is delivered in a timely manner and to the highest standards possible.”

 

Excellence in Patient or Service-user Involvement Award

This award recognises teams, patient and staff collaborations or projects that have used innovative or outstanding practice to involve patients, service users or carers in continuously improving their services.

  • Emily Robertshaw

“LPT successfully achieved the Star 1 award from the national Carers Trust Triangle of Care (TOC) programme. This recognition was attributed to the excellent submission by LPT, which showcased the impact of coproduction and collaborative working between the Trust and our lived experience partners. The national team acknowledged that this collaborative approach through working with our carers led to a culture change at the Trust, demonstrating a commitment to achieving TOC standards.”

  • Substance Use Team

“The Substance Use team embodies service user involvement as standard in every element of the way they work. The service was modelled following discussions with service users to gain insight into their experiences in inpatient settings and how they view their experiences of how co-morbidity is addressed during their hospital stay. Service user feedback is acted on to make changes to policy and practice.”

  • LDA Care Navigation Team

“The team initiated a QI project to increase our friends and family test (FFT) responses for our LDA services, due to us having a consistently low response rate. They have updated the FFT resources, including our easy read response card and offer support to service users/family and/or carers with completing them. This has increased our response rate to approx. 40 per month vs five previously.”

 

Learner of the Year Award

This award recognises a commitment to personal and professional development, utilising the knowledge and skills gained through undertaking learning programmes for the benefit of services and/or patient care.

  • Yvonne Dube

“In 2024, Yvonne completed the director of nursing and allied health professionals fellowship, where she led a quality improvement project to enhance collaboration between dietitians and district nurses in the care of complex patients. Her work demonstrated a desire in learning to be a great leader, focusing on multi-disciplinary impact, and improved patient outcomes. This experience deepened her leadership and research and affirmed her commitment to continued learning.”

  • Elise Marsden

“We saw her potential, skill set and personality early on within her placement. She has a way with patients and staff that cannot be taught, but comes from her as a person. She demonstrated a passion for learning new things, but also on how she could improve what she already knew. It was an honour to support her learning as she took every opportunity she could to expand her knowledge base, including observing a very difficult and risky situation on the ward.”

  • Ollie Page

“Ollie Page, our present music therapy student, who has never worked with this patient group before, has sought out opportunities to work with our most distressed and hard to reach patients. His determination to seek out new and dynamic ways to facilitate communication, expression and engagement has been a joy to observe. His ability to reflect, seek out relevant theory and apply it to practice demonstrates his passion and drive to learn and achieve more for himself and for our patients.”

 

Excellence in Leadership Award

This award recognises exemplary inclusive, compassionate leadership that demonstrates a positive and sustained impact on patients, service users, carers and staff.

  • Helen Walton

“There has not been any task that Helen has not taken on, even sometimes outside the scope of her own remit. She supports all members of the management team both in hard and soft facilities management and regularly carries out site visits and drop in sessions so all members of the Facilities Service can speak to her and share concerns, ideas and feel a valued member of her team.”

  • Louise Lee

“Through investment into the service Louise has implemented service changes to completely eliminate the ‘review waiting list’ using digital innovation and has also developed a Tier 2 continence service.

As the service lead and experienced clinician she has been instrumental in the recruitment, training and development of the team to allow the service offer to continue, alongside managing her own caseload and developing the Tier 2 service.”

  • Stacey Phillips

“T – Team commitment, her superpower is being extremely organised.

E – End of life journey, ensuring compassionate, support and comfort.

A – Approachable with an open-door policy to raise concerns and ideas.

M – Making a difference.”

 

Valuing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award

This award recognises those who demonstrate an outstanding commitment to valuing and promoting equality, diversity and inclusion for service users and/or staff.

  • Reasonable Adjustments Clinic

“The reasonable adjustments clinic (RAC) comprises of staff from across the Trust who are curious to understand why staff are having difficulties accessing support needed for disabilities or neurodiversity and to improve systems and processes to help staff and managers navigate the process more easily. The RAC team have significantly improved the quality of the working lives of many staff and supported their managers to provide greater equality and diversity in our workplace.”

  • Rebecca Eccles and the Primary Care Liaison Nurse Team

“Rebecca and the team have led on a significant number of quality improvement projects over the past year including improving access to vaccinations, developing a GP Friendly Practice Award and a GP learning disability ambassador network. They have established a LDA health equity champions network with over 100 people from local neighbourhoods; and held network events throughout the year to challenge discrimination through sharing good practice and inspiring people to take positive action.”

  • Lynn Snow

“Dr Snow is known for her thoroughness in assessments, ensuring that each patient is valued and listened to, regardless of language barriers. Her kindness and sympathy towards her patients are evident in every interaction. Dr. Snow’s dedication to equality, diversity, and inclusion not only benefits her patients but also inspires her colleagues.”

 

Excellence in Quality Improvement Award

This award recognises an outstanding commitment to quality improvement and innovation, that has resulted in measurable benefits for LPT’s patients, service users and/or staff.

  • Dr McConnochie, Dr Abdalla and Rebecca Fereday (on behalf of CRT Flow team)

“Currently the main treatments for depression are psychological interventions and medications. Medications are often poorly tolerated with 60% reporting side-effects. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (TDCS) offers an alternative treatment, either in place of, or alongside, medications. This quality improvement project provides patients under Crisis Resolution Team (CRT) treatment with TDCS using a Flow device. This treatment has RCT evidence to support its effectiveness in the treatment of depression.”

  • Community Phlebotomy Service

“Earlier this year we demonstrated an improvement our service needed with regards to blood bottle labels. For years our phlebotomists hand wrote hundreds of blood bottles daily. Our phlebotomists can now print all their bottle labels prior to visiting their patients, this provides the service with a significant improvement in quality and productivity, together with patient care.”

  • Healthy Together Helpline

“Over the past year, the Healthy Together Helpline (HTH) has refined, expanded and developed various pathways and process with the HTH having oversight. The integration of Chat Health from local teams into HTH has led to a 50% reduction in reliance on bank staff, while enhancing oversight and utilisation. The commitment to continuous innovation is evident in the introduction of skill mix within the team, optimising resources and strengthening expertise.”

 

Excellence in Research Award

This award recognises individuals who have driven the use of research for improvements, undertaken exemplary research or exceeded expectations around involving patients, services users and/or staff in research studies.

  • Dr Satheesh Gangadharan

“Dr Gangadharan’s commitment to research has significantly improved quality of care by supporting clinicians to understand the needs of people with a learning disability, take a proactive approach to their care, and personalise interventions. DECODE is already having an impact on our region with active engagement of people with a learning disability and carers who co-design the research at every stage.”

  • Kristelle Craven

“Kristelle’s research is marked by both rigour and relevance. Using a theory-informed, co-design methodology, Kristelle engaged a wide range of stakeholders including stroke survivors, employers, healthcare professionals, trade unions, stroke charities, and HR specialists—across surveys, interviews, and workshops. Their insights directly shaped the toolkit, ensuring accessibility, inclusivity, and practical applicability in real-world settings.”

  • Emily Lucocq

“Emily has championed a comprehensive smoke-free quit offer across acute services and ensured LPT’s active involvement in four research studies over the past year. She is principal investigator for the six-year NIHR-funded SCEPTRE Feasibility Study, which highlights the value of post-discharge support. As one patient shared, “I felt supported even after leaving the ward, which helped me stay smoke-free in the community.”

 

Group Excellence Award

This award is to celebrate teams, projects or initiatives from across the Leicestershire Partnership and Northamptonshire Healthcare Associate University Group.

  • QSIR Associates

“There are eight Quality, Service Improvement and Redesign (QSIR) Associates across the Group and they work together to deliver QSIR to cohorts of LPT and NHFT staff. Associates consistently demonstrate the leadership behaviours in their work across the Group to deliver this programme, with compassion and commitment to ‘making a difference together’.”

  • Health, Safety and EPRR Team

“The team have worked in collaboration with their counterparts in NHFT to constantly strive to improve the management of safety and EPRR across the group. They have worked together to create shared values, objectives, goals and consistency in approach, with safety being at the heart of everything they do. The team are incredibly responsive and never fail to step up and support including leading on business continuity, safety support for staff, reacting to incidents and security management.”

  • Strategy and Partnerships Team

“Our Group strategy was signed off and endorsed by our Boards in March 2025 following a year long engagement with our staff, patients and service users, carers and their families, in addition to our wider stakeholders. The strategy listened and heard from over 3,000 responses and views on what our first Group strategy should prioritise, what was important to them and what 2030 could look like as a result of a new strategy.”

 

Unsung Hero of the Year – Compassion Award

Selected by the Chair and Chief Executive of the Trust, this award recognises an individual for their exceptional practice or contribution to LPT.

  • Dee Chidenga

“Her dedication to her patients, carers and support given to her team are exceptional. Dee incorporates into her role many elements of high quality and best practice in care. Dee works with complex need and will go the extra mile to ensure her patients needs are met. Dee will offer a guiding hand to staff and enables staff to develop at their own pace and supports their innovations to improve care for our patients.”

  • Jacqui Doody

“Jacqui takes the time to understand the unique needs of each student nurse, offering reassurance, encouragement, and expert guidance. Her approachable, empathetic nature helps students feel safe, valued, and supported, even in challenging circumstances. She is a consistent source of strength and kindness, particularly in uncertain times. Jacqui consistently goes the extra mile, transforms lives without seeking praise, and works with heart, humility, and hope.”

  • Sarah Jones

“Sarah is passionate about human rights and supporting marginalised communities. In particular Sarah has organised and created a network of support for asylum seekers in Charnwood, that has created better access to health care support, and has gone above and beyond to support people with the very basic needs, like food and shelter. It’s not uncommon for Sarah to have a van full of donations, driving across Leicester on days, evenings and weekends working with local organisations.”

 

Volunteer of the Year Award

Awarded to an individual volunteer or team of volunteers who volunteer for LPT and have made an outstanding contribution to helping LPT go above and beyond.

  • Caroline Love and Hugo (the dog)

“Caroline and her pet dog, Hugo, are best buddies and have been coming to visit and support the patients for many years. Caroline visits different sites on different dates and really is very busy. She really doesn’t have the time to say yes to more but always finds the time to help and make a difference. Caroline is so committed to making a difference to anyone that may need it.”

  • Voluntary drivers

“The volunteer drivers give up so much of their time to support our services, committing to whole days and in some cases more than one day a week. They use their own cars too. The volunteers start early in the morning and help all day, going the extra mile to get so many patients to their appointments. The drivers provide that reassurance for patients who might be feeling anxious and in some cases have supported them to get them and sometimes their carers to the right place within NHS buildings.”

  • Quorn Ukulele Orchestra (The QUO)

“The QUO have been volunteering in MHSOP inpatient services for two and a half years. They attend both the Evington and Bennion Centres on a monthly basis, performing on all four MHSOP wards. They have never missed a session, are completely reliable, and a joy to have on the wards. Around 10-12 members attend each month, giving up their own time to support our patients, and I am told how much benefit the players get from seeing the responses of patients, which is wonderful to hear.”

 

Well done to everyone nominated and everyone who has been shortlisted as a finalist.