Dedicated staff and volunteers from across Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) were recognised at our Staff Awards for Excellence 2025, held at the City Chambers on 14 March.

The awards recognise and celebrate individual staff, teams and projects who have ‘gone the extra mile’ in their work in several categories.

Both health and social work staff working within our HSCP were eligible to be nominated. There was also a category for volunteers, and individuals not employed by us could also be nominated.

The overall winner for our HSCP will be announced in May at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s (NHSGGC) Celebrating Success Awards.

This year’s awards were hosted by our HSCP’s Chief Officer, Pat Togher, and Councillor Chris Cunningham, the City Convener for Health, Care & Caring and Older People, Glasgow City Council.

Along with them, Gary Dover, Assistant Chief Officer for Primary Care and Early Intervention, Karen Lockhart, Interim Assistant Chief Officer for Adult Services and North West Operations and Fiona Moss, Head of Health Improvement and Equalities announced category winners and commendations.

Pat said: “I’m genuinely delighted to take part in our staff awards. It’s so important for us to take time to recognise our staff and appreciate the work that they all do. To pick people out is really challenging.

“A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to submit nominations, and of course, to our nominees. People have taken time to write these nominations to show how much they appreciate the work that they all do and how they have a positive impact on our colleagues, patients, service users, carers and their families.  

“You were all invited here today because your contributions make a meaningful impact within our HSCP and in the lives of those around you and the people of Glasgow – your commitment to making a difference does not go unnoticed. I congratulate to you all.”

We received 110 nominations from across the HSCP. After reviewing and shortlisting the nominations, a judging panel shortlisted 36 and made awards and commendations in each of the five categories.

Team of the Year
Winner: Glasgow City HSCP Property Team

Our Property Team successfully delivered the new Parkhead Hub Project, while also dealing with competing projects and demands within their team.

The Hub is the first project of this size and type delivered by the HSCP, and this team went above and beyond engaging with both Glasgow City Council, NHS services, other partners and stakeholders to commission the Hub within a difficult and changing environment.

They went the extra mile and worked long hours in order to meet tight and ever-changing deadlines and to meet project deliverables. The team was the glue that held everything together during project deliveries, always making time for others and providing advice and guidance at every stage.

The team delivered a large-scale project that will significantly benefit the HSCP as well as our service users and patients and will also provide a community base for the east end of Glasgow delivering support to Glasgow residents by including a library, café and spaces to use for community groups.

Commendation: Health and Social Care Connect Adults and Older People Team

Health and Social Care Connect has been one of the most challenging pieces of innovative work in the UK. No other local authority on the scale of Glasgow has ever established a single point of contact for all new social care services to be accessed by its citizens.

The single point of access aims to reduce confusion and prevent duplication of information for staff, service uses and their families. The direct outcome of the team’s triage and assessment process means that significant numbers of adults/older people are signposted to appropriate supports. Enquiries are dealt with efficiently and consistently allowing early intervention, enabling service users to become more independent.

The team is often the first to deal with people in distress and crisis, and it’s thanks to their resilience, determination, inventiveness and empathy that Glasgow citizens are more protected and supported through difficult times and current budgetary challenges.

Leader of the Year
Winner: Pauline Ward, Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) Care Home Team (HSCP)

In just 18 months, Pauline prove herself to be an exemplary leader within the Care Home Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) Team. Pauline’s contributions not only redefined the team’s structure but also elevated the standards of care and collaboration within our HSCP.

Pauline’s leadership extends beyond addressing immediate challenges. She cultivated a culture of continuous improvement and professional growth ensuring that the team consistently meets and exceeds standards of care, contributing to better outcomes for both patients and families.

Commendation: Kathleen Jardine, Team Leader, Social Work, South Locality

Kathleen is a Team Leader in the South Locality. The past year was particularly challenging for staff in the south that led to Kathleen managing two teams on her own, including leading duty and continuing to ensure her team’s wellbeing and their further development.

Kathleen is described by her team as always approachable, present and supportive. Her ability to manage challenging situations and stress further offered reassurance that despite any difficulties her team faced, she was right alongside them, going above and beyond to provide invaluable support.

Employee of the Year 
Winner: Liam Logue, Social Care Worker, Housing First

Liam was nominated by his whole team. Liam brings a brightness to the working environment and is known for going the extra mile for the service users he works with.

He works in a full-time post and also volunteers supporting homeless and rough sleeper people in the city centre with a voluntary group called ‘The Invisibles’. He encourages the group to work with the HSCP and often brings the benefits of his volunteering into the workplace to assist vulnerable service users.

Liam is very focussed on equality and high service standards and goes the extra mile for service users, never giving up. He’s been able to get long term homeless people with complex needs and a deep mistrust of services to work with him, undertaking assessments and developing support plans.

There are numerous examples of Liam’s personal kindness and contribution to benefit others in a variety of cases. While this assists the service user it also enhances the bond with the member of staff, which helps them provide regular treatment and care where previously it may have been difficult to encourage the service user to attend.

Commendation: Theresa McGhee, Clinical Coordinator South Locality, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)

Theresa made a significant difference to the experience of children and families accessing the service. She played a key role in the development of the neurodevelopmental pathway to create increased capacity within CAMHS and reduce waiting times.

Theresa was instrumental in helping the team reduce the referral to initial appointment time from approximately 12 months to the current time of approximately eight weeks. This has made a huge difference to families getting timely care within CAMHS or being redirected to a more appropriate service at an earlier stage.

Innovation of the Year
Winner: The Thistle Project Team

The team was led by our HSCP and included colleagues from our HSCP (Design Team), Neighbourhoods Regeneration and Sustainability, Glasgow City Council (City Building) and NHSGGC (Property and Capital Planning, Estates, Facilities Management and Infection Control) to develop and deliver the UK’s first Safer Drug Consumption Facility, The Thistle.

The Thistle is a truly unique service, the implementation of which required innovative solutions to many service requirements never previously encountered within UK health environments. Throughout the project, all teams were led by the need to deliver the highest quality of care for potential service users, who traditionally don’t engage with standard treatment services, and suffer marginalisation and stigma.

The team placed the needs of the potential service users and staff members, of both the new service and existing on-site services, as their main priority. They actively engaged in consultations with lived experience groups and the surrounding community, taking suggestions and feedback on-board and incorporating into the final build.

This is a clear demonstration of the benefits of partnership working, everyone bringing their own skills and knowledge to produce a service that meets the needs of the Lived Experience Reference Groups and future service users.

It is hoped that the provision of services from The Thistle will have a positive impact, reducing wider community consequences of public injecting and change the legislation going forward.

Commendation: WAYfinder Outreach Video: services for people at risk of, experiencing or have experienced homelessness

The WAYfinder tender team created a video showing people with lived experience of homelessness describing the service in their own words. 
It is incredibly powerful to hear them speak about the specific things that would make a difference to them and for them to have named the service ‘Who Are You’.

The participants helped to develop the service specification and described why the different aspects of the service mattered, and how they would improve people’s experience of homelessness services.

The video allowed organisations bidding for tenders to have a greater understanding of the service and what the specific parts of this meant to individuals who would receive support. The service will then better meet the needs of individuals, prevent re-traumatisation and give services a clear idea of what they need to do to support people.

Volunteer of the Year
Winners: Paul Young, Garden Volunteer and Ross Parker, Games Volunteer, Art in the Gart, Gartnavel Royal Hospital

Paul Young is a Garden volunteer at Gartnavel Royal Hospital Gardens known as ‘The Art in the Gart Growing Spaces’. Paul is committed to the gardens spending most days looking after them, helping all who use and visit them – patients, staff, visitors, contractors and the local nursery school.

Paul supports ward staff to offer hands-on, monthly gardening workshops in the wards, advising staff and patients on gardening and looking after their plants. He wants everyone to be able to enjoy and experience the positive effects that being in a garden and with nature have on mental and physical wellbeing.

Ross Parker is a Games Volunteer situated within the Art in the Gart Hub Cafe project. He enables inpatients, staff and visitors the chance to pause, enjoy a cuppa, play chess, a board or card game, or simply spend time with someone who has experience of the issues that can impact on good mental health and overall wellbeing.

Clinical staff have observed that when patients sit down to play a board game with Ross, they relax, are interested in chatting about things other than the hospital and ward setting and greatly appreciate the opportunity to do so.

Ross has empathy and a quiet way that helps alleviate the stress or anxiety that someone may be feeling. His excellent listening skills have added an additional quality to the environment within the Hub Cafe.

Closing the ceremony, our Chief Officer, Pat Togher thanked everyone. He said: “While we’ve announced winners today, let me remind you that every single nominee is a winner. Your dedication, compassion and hard work make a real difference – not just to our HSCP but to the people of Glasgow. This event is about recognising that impact, and you should all be incredibly proud as I am today.”