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Mental health nurses are key to promoting and supporting recovery, helping patients and clients to live independent and fulfilling lives. They build effective relationships with service users and their relatives and carers.

Open to registered nurses working in mental health services, this award aims to recognise those who have succeeded in raising standards of care for their patients and clients and have made an outstanding contribution to the care of service users.

Who could be nominated?

A registered mental health nurse working in a clinical role or managing clinical services within mental health services across Scotland.

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:

• His Majesty's Prison and Young Offenders' Institute (HMYOI) Lillias Centre, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• IPCU, NHS Tayside
• Mental Health Unscheduled Care Assessment Hub, NHS Ayrshire and Arran

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.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

HMPYOI Lilias is one of Scotland’s two Community Custody Units and the UK’s first designed specifically for women. It offers a trauma-informed, gender-specific, therapeutic environment as an alternative to traditional prisons. The facility aims to reduce health inequalities, lower re-offending rates, and improve public safety by addressing the complex health and social needs of incarcerated women. The team works with patients from disadvantaged backgrounds, who often have chronic physical and mental health conditions, addiction issues, and heightened sexual health risks. Innovations include in-house sexual health services, pre-liberation contraception consultations, and multi-disciplinary pre-liberation planning to ensure continuity of care in the community. This approach supports smoother reintegration, reduces health inequalities, and lowers risks such as unplanned pregnancies or STI transmission. HMPYOI Lilias demonstrates how integrated, multidisciplinary healthcare in prisons can improve individual outcomes, enhance public safety, reduce re-offending, and provide wider social and economic benefits.

NHS Tayside

NHS Tayside’s Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit (IPCU) is dedicated to providing safe, person-centered care for patients experiencing acutely disturbed phases of mental illness. The IPCU nursing team has focused on enhancing patient care by engaging the multidisciplinary team, patients, carers, and relatives in a collaborative approach, and by aligning their practices with national best practice standards. In 2018, the unit joined the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Quality Network for Psychiatric Intensive Care Units (QNPICU) development programme, which uses a structured, multi-disciplinary approach to quality improvement through self-review, peer review, and sharing of best practices. In June 2024, IPCU became the first unit in the United Kingdom to achieve full QNPICU accreditation, meeting 100% of essential standards. Achieving accreditation demonstrated the team’s commitment to high-quality, person-centered care despite the challenges of balancing ongoing patient care with a demanding quality improvement project. Since accreditation, the IPCU team has continued to share their experiences nationally, and their work provides a model for other services. 

NHS Ayrshire and Arran

Newly established, this nurse-led Mental Health Unscheduled Care Assessment Hub is the first of its kind in Scotland. The Hub provides 24-hour mental health assessment and short-term therapeutic interventions for up to 72 hours, accommodating up to five patients overnight. Admission is restricted to Mental Health Unscheduled Care Service (MHUCS) teams, ensuring continuity of care, reducing multiple assessments, and supporting patients to remain safely in the community wherever possible, with acute inpatient beds used only when necessary. The Hub works closely with the Intensive Community Psychiatric Nurse Team (ICPNT), facilitating smooth transitions between community and inpatient settings, supporting early discharge, and providing step-down care. In its first year, the Hub managed 256 admissions, with 76% of patients returning directly to the community without requiring an acute bed. Patients and carers report highly positive experiences, valuing timely assessments, direct staff contact, and feeling listened to, while carers praised the calm and supportive approach. The Hub continues to develop nursing roles and provide professional learning opportunities.

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 mental health sector.