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Nursing and midwifery plays a key role in ensuring children receive the best start in life, those working in this field must consider the care and support needs of the wider family as well as the child.

Open to registered nurses and registered midwives working in services for children and young people and maternity services, this award aims to recognise those who have made an outstanding contribution to the care of children or young people or the care of mothers-to-be and new parents.

Who could be nominated?

A registered children’s nurse, health visitor, school nurse, midwife, and all others working in a clinical role or managing a clinical service in children's healthcare.

What was the criteria for consideration?

Each finalist must clearly demonstrate:

• a commitment to person-centred care, innovation and delivering high quality services that make a difference to the people receiving care
• the positive impact of their work for patients, families and colleagues
• the use of a credible evidence base and/or developing an evidence base to underpin the work for which they are being nominated
• how their work contributes to the delivery of local and national policy and strategy within health and social care.

If you have any questions or queries regarding the awards, please get in touch by emailing scotlandnurseawards@rcn.org.uk

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The nominations process closed on 14 November 2025 and following our judging process, three finalists have been selected:

• Caroline Porter, Diana Children's Nurse, Children's Hospices Across Scotland
• Fife School Nursing Service, NHS Fife
• Nicky Bridges, Former Associate Director for Outreach Services, Children's Hospices Across Scotland

You can read more below about why our judges feel these finalists represent the #BestOfNursing in Scotland.

The winners will be announced at our glittering awards ceremony at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh on 30 April.

Diana Children's Nurse
Children's Hospices Across Scotland

Caroline is described as an exceptional children’s nurse with over 30 years’ experience and Scotland’s first Diana Children’s Nurse, working jointly with Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. She has dedicated her career to improving care for children with life-shortening conditions and supporting families through life, death and beyond. Central to Caroline’s impact is her relentless drive to improve end-of-life symptom management for children. Identifying a major gap in hospital care where nurses were not trained to use continuous subcutaneous infusion (CSCI) pumps, her determination led to the development and delivery of a comprehensive paediatric CSCI training programme for hospital nurses, resulting in staff being signed off as competent and enabling timely, high-quality symptom management at end of life. She also led the creation of local paediatric CSCI guidelines, now adopted by the health board, and has contributed to national guidance through the Paediatric Palliative and End of Life Care Network (PELiCaN). Beyond this, Caroline has played a pivotal role in pioneering new models of paediatric care around dying, helping to establish equitable, 24/7 nursing support for children regardless of diagnosis or place of care. 

NHS Fife

Fife’s School Nursing Service has been nominated for their exceptional leadership, innovation, and compassion in delivering safe, person-centred care to children, young people, and families across Fife, achieving a 99% appointment offer rate within 28 days and ensuring timely access to support. Grounded in children’s rights, the team has embraced new approaches such as self-referral QR codes, empowering young people to access services independently and actively shaping service delivery to meet their needs through quality improvement methodology. They have focused on key priority areas including mental health and wellbeing, sexual health, child protection, support for care-experienced children, homelessness, substance misuse, and domestic abuse, collaborating closely with education, social work, CAMHS, and third-sector partners to streamline pathways, safeguard children, and reduce health inequalities. By developing KPIs and data sets to monitor performance, engaging in continuous improvement, and embedding trauma-informed, inclusive practices, the team has fostered a culture of shared learning, innovation, and excellence.

Former Associate Director for Outreach Services
Children's Hospices Across Scotland
(Now working as a registered nurse on the CHAS Nurse Bank)

Nicky is nominated for her career in children’s palliative care with more than 17 years with Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS), where she consistently championed holistic, family-centred care. Bringing extensive community experience into hospice services, she shaped care models that truly reflect the realities families face. Completing a Master’s in Palliative Care, she led research that highlighted and addressed the often-overlooked needs of fathers. Her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic was transformative: she served as organisational lead for infection control, maintained hospice services, expanded CHAS at Home, and led the creation of the world’s first virtual children’s hospice, ensuring families continued to receive specialist nursing, emotional, and bereavement support. A determined advocate and problem-solver, Nicky has driven innovative partnerships to support families in remote communities, strengthened financial wellbeing services, embedded therapeutic play in community care, and led safeguarding and governance improvements across the organisation. 

Whilst our 2026 finalists await to find out the results at our award ceremony on 30 April 2026, read about our previous winners of this category and what made them stand out as the #BestOfNursing in Scotland's children's nursing and midwifery sector.