Glasgow City HSCP Staff Awards for Excellence 2026 – Well done to all!

Dedicated staff and volunteers from across Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) were recognised at our Staff Awards for Excellence (SAFE) 2026, held at the City Chambers on Friday, 13 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, where individuals not employed by us could also be nominated.

The overall winner for our HSCP will be announced later in the year 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 awards were also presented by Cllr Chris Cunningham, Chair of the Glasgow City Integration Joint Board and City Convener for Health, Care and Caring and Older People for Glasgow City Council; Kelda Gaffney, Depute Chief Officer Operations & Governance and Chief Social Work Officer; Lorraine Cribbin, Interim Chief Nurse and Fiona Moss, Head of Health Improvement and Equalities.

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.

“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 citizens of Glasgow.

“A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to submit nominations, and of course, to our nominees. Your commitment to making a difference does not go unnoticed. I congratulate you all.”

We received 111 nominations from across the HSCP. After reviewing the nominations, a judging panel shortlisted 38 and selected winners and commendations in each of the five categories. These were as follows.

Team of the Year
Winner: Shift Team Project Workers within James McLean Project (Homeless Service for 16 to 21 year-olds)

The team at the James McLean Project consistently goes above and beyond what would normally be expected in a homelessness support service.

Staff work with young people aged 16 to 21 who often present with multiple and complex needs. The team delivers compassionate, safe and person-centred care every single day, frequently in crisis situations that require teamwork, calm decision making and emotional resilience.

What makes this team exceptional is the way they pull together. This team cohesion ensures the project remains a safe, calm environment even during chaotic circumstances. For service users, the impact is profound. Several young people have reported that the team “kept them going,” or “was the first place I felt safe,” demonstrating clear outcomes in emotional stability and recovery.

Commendation: Balmore Children’s House

The team at Balmore consistently provide excellent care to our children and young people and have received excellent feedback during our quality assurance process.

The care team show exceptional commitment to the young people they support, consistently going above and beyond to ensure their needs are met. 
The staff team truly embodies trauma informed practice. They reflect deeply on their work and adapt their approach to meet the individual needs of the children in their care.

The team at Balmore not only deliver excellent care but go above and beyond their contractual obligation to ensure that our young people have the same childhood experiences as those not looked after.

Leader of the Year
Winner: Marie Brown, Service Manager, South Learning Disability Team  

Marie has played a key role in bringing the Learning Disability NHS team and the Social Work team together into one strong, united partnership within the HSCP.

Over the past year, Marie has been a real driving force behind integration. She’s encouraged joint training, organised shared social experiences and brought her teams all together under one roof. Being co-located has made it so much easier for all to work side by side, and it’s led to much stronger collaboration across all disciplines.

Because of Marie’s leadership, the way her team works together has genuinely improved, and the people who benefit most are the service users who now receive a more joined up, higher quality service.

Commendation: Sinead Mallon, Project Leader, Community Support Service

Sinead exemplifies outstanding leadership and unwavering commitment to both service users and colleagues within our HSCP. She is highly approachable, solution focused and consistently demonstrates that no challenge is too great. Her proactive approach ensures that service users and their families receive the support they need, even in unexpected or difficult circumstances.

In addition to her managerial responsibilities, Sinead frequently volunteers to cover Good Night Team shifts. This not only supports service delivery but also boosts team morale, as staff see a leader who leads by example.

Sinead’s actions consistently go above and beyond expectations, embodying the values of compassion, professionalism and innovation that define our HSCP. She is a role model for leadership and an asset to the organisation.

Employee of the Year 
Winner: Sabine Gnauck, Service Manager, Hospital Discharge Team

Sabine manages the hospital discharge function of the HSCP.  Sabine has demonstrated high levels of compassion for patients, professional integrity in managing external pressures, exceptional loyalty and support to her very pressured team.

Sabine has consistently accommodated urgent work requests that require her to work late and over weekends. She is very respected and liked by her team for her leadership and support to them.

Sabine's work involves very high volumes of patient turnover. Her impact is on improving the lives of the thousands of people, referred to her team each year, supporting them out of hospital at the most vulnerable times of their lives and settling them into their permanent homes.

Commendation: Mark O'Donnell, Therapeutic Activity Nurse, Leverndale Hospital

Mark is a very well respected and liked member of the Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit (IPCU) Team at Leverndale Hospital.  The IPCU environment is a challenging and very busy one, with most patients being acutely unwell.

Mark goes that extra mile to ensure the patients in IPCU can take part in art, psychology groups, physio groups, music, computer games, cycling, shopping, games and exercise.

Mark encourages the patients to participate in hospital competitions. This gives patients a sense of worth, enjoyment and feelings of achievement. The IPCU has won several awards within the hospital, after Mark encouraged and assisted patients to participate in artwork to enable the ward to enter.

Mark is very approachable, and patients and carers speak highly of him due to his caring, considerate and inclusive manner. Ward staff appreciate all the work he does, and he is an asset to their team.

Innovation of the Year
Winner: Enhanced Care Service

The Enhanced Care Service (ECS) was created to respond to significant hospital delays for patients. These delays were due to patients with high dependency and who were unable to access mainstream residential care, impacting hospital flow and patient outcomes.

Our HSCP’s Meadowburn and Hawthorn House care homes both operate 15 ECS beds. The ECS has proved successful at both sites with staff and the services adapting to this innovative model for care delivery.

Initial timelines for the services being fully operational were fast tracked. Staff went that extra mile to respond to demand and capacity pressures, supporting multiple teams within our HSCP.

Feedback received from service users has been universally positive – the ECS has provided a more homely atmosphere with the ability to engage with others in a social setting.

Unnecessary time spent by patients in hospital has now reduced due to this new pathway that supports medically fit patients out of hospital to a care home or back to the community.

Commendation: Making It Happen Project Team

The work of our HSCP’s ‘Making It Happen’ Project Team has fundamentally changed how people with severe and enduring mental ill health move from hospital into community settings. This has solved a long-standing problem of ‘stuck in hospital’ patients and unsuccessful placements into a replicable model of success.

The team brought together staff from Adult Services including Commissioning, Inpatient Services, Community Mental Health Services and Social Work with the third sector provider Lanam Healthcare.

Partners co-produced a new discharge service model and pathway that starts with the person, builds trust before any move and sustains support long after the transition to a community setting. These were tailored to the needs of a group of patients who had spent years in hospital care, often requiring statutory measures, due to lack of capacity for welfare decisions.

As a test of change, ‘Making It Happen’ has created a blueprint for future commissioning of complex mental health services, demonstrating that integrated practice across health, social care and the independent sector can reliably achieve excellent outcomes.  

Volunteer of the Year
Winner: Stuart James

Stuart is an exceptional local resident who has taken his own lived experience and turned it into something remarkable.

Following his diagnosis of Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), Stuart recognised the isolation and uncertainty that so many people with FND face.
In recent months, Stuart has founded the very first FND Support Circle in Scotland, hosted in our Parkhead Hub.

Through Stuart’s tireless effort this peer‑led group has now grown to almost 100 members, with monthly meetings, new sub‑groups forming across the country and even expert clinicians engaging with the work. Local GPs and our own Primary Care Mental Health Team are now signposting people to the group because they recognise its value, its impact and its importance.

Commendation: The Young Persons Befriending Service Volunteer Team - at Volunteer Glasgow

This team consists of 39 adult befrienders in the Volunteer Glasgow Young Persons Befriending Service (YPBS) who volunteer their spare time every week to support young people in community-based activities across Glasgow. They bring skills and experience from a wide range of professional backgrounds and day jobs.

Not only do they fulfil their weekly volunteering role as befrienders, supporting children and young people aged 8 to 18, many of them referred to the YPBS, by HSCP staff, go the extra mile by promoting YPBS, raising much needed funds and sourcing and sharing activities for befriending matches.

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 citizens of Glasgow. This event is about recognising that impact, and you should all be incredibly proud as I am today.”