Our award categories for Golden Stars 2026 are:
Improving Access to Treatment
This award will go to an individual or team which can demonstrate effective and innovative efforts towards improving targets and treatment pathways to enhance patient care.
Your nomination will score more highly if you can show how this person or team has:
- Evidenced a demonstrable improvement towards the achievement one of our main constitutional targets: RTT, ED 4-hrs, ambulance turnaround times, cancer, diagnostics. The successful nomination will be able to measure this improvement and demonstrate the positive impact it has had on patients
- Introduced new approaches, pathways or technologies/digital solutions that improve patient access to services
- Addressed issues of healthcare inequalities to ensure fairness of access for all patients.
Outstanding Flow Project
A nod to the FLOW campaign launched across the group in 2024, this award recognises the efforts to improve flow throughout our hospitals and community services – whether that’s a small initiative in your department to reduce waste or improve efficiencies or a larger scale project across your care group, trust, group or even our region. You could be focused on improving the flow of finances, people or careers.
Your nomination will score more highly if you can show how your project has:
- Shows how the project reduced operational pressure, for instance improving the number of discharges from hospital/reduced length of stay.
- Shows how the project resulted in an improvement to the care we provide staff or patients
- Engaged with key stakeholders to make it a success
- Resulted in a demonstrable reduction in waste – whether that be products or processes
- Led to a more efficient way of working
Excellence in Improvement and Innovation
This award recognises individuals or teams who have taken strides to constantly improve and enhance the services they provide. This could be through a formal quality improvement project, or not – using quality improvement methodology
Nominations will score more highly if your application includes details of the following:
- A compelling reason to make a change or improvement.
- Evidence that an improvement has been made in outcomes/experience
- The significant impact this has had on patient care, and evidence to showcase this.
- Examples of patient and/or staff engagement, providing examples of creativity and any teamwork that enhanced the improvement.
- Clear examples of measurable financial savings achieved without compromising quality of care or service
- Digital excellence
- Quality improvement projects
Outstanding Contribution to Staff Engagement
This award recognises an individual or team who work hard to create a positive working environment where all staff feel valued, and where patient care is the number one priority.
Nominations may score more highly if you can show how this individual or team has:
- Introduced creative approaches to boost morale, recognition and team cohesion
- Clear data or feedback showing improvements in staff experience, retention or engagement scores
- Evidence of creating a friendly, fun and compassionate environment; listening to the views of staff and supporting them to deliver on their ideas for improvement
- Created a culture where patient care is the number one priority
- Created a sense of pride in the team, the organisation and the NHS
Championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Recognising a person or team which promotes equality, diversity and inclusion for service users, staff or the community.
Nominations may score more highly if you can show how this person or team has:
- Enhanced care for service users and/or colleagues through a sustained and passionate commitment to inclusion
- Has contributed to an improvement in a specific area of EDI, including equality of access to opportunities, recruitment or networking. This can be for staff and/or patients
- Has raised the profile of inclusion within their organisation
Excellence in Patient Safety
This award will go to a team or individual who has successfully implemented an effective patient safety initiative. This may have been the result of learning lessons when something went wrong, addressing feedback from a complaint, PALs query or from a clinical audit, or effectively managing the roll-out of a national initiative.
Your nomination will score more highly if you can show how this person or team has:
- Introduced a creative or novel approach that significantly enhances patient safety outcomes.
- Taken action to learn from and/or share good practice as a way of improving safety of patients.
- Clear data or examples showing improvements in safety metrics, reduction in incidents, or enhanced patient experience
- Listened to feedback/concerns raised and taken action in response
Excellence in Research and Development
This award will go to an individual or team which can demonstrate an outstanding and innovative contribution to research and development.
Nominations may score more highly if they can show how this person or team has:
- Successfully delivered a clinical or non-clinical trial with excellent results
- Promoted research as a core component of Group thinking
- Generated funding bids, training opportunities, projects, partnerships and participants.
- Collaborated across the North and South bank to successfully implement the research and findings.
Healthcare heroes (a public nomination award)
This award gives patients and their families the opportunity to tell us about their NHS heroes, the people who made a real difference at their time of need, improved their experience and created a lasting positive impact.
Nominations will score more highly if you can show how this person or team has:
- Demonstrated compassion and caring above the call of duty
- Listened to and acted upon feedback from patients/service users
- Describes the significant positive impact that they had on this patient/service user.
Rising Star
This award looks to celebrate those taking their first steps in their NHS career- whether that’s a younger member of the team, an apprentice, or someone who’s new to the NHS. They will have demonstrated a commitment and professionalism in their service and acted as a role model for the Trust.
Your nomination will score more highly if you can show how this person has:
- Helped to improve the team/department or service
- Contributed significantly to the delivery of great care/great services, staff and/or patient experience/safety etc.
- Excelled in their role
Inspirational Leader
In recognition of an inspiring leader who motivates and encourages their team to achieve great things.
The winner will be a compassionate and visionary role model for staff. They do not need to be a senior manager, as we find leadership at all levels.
You will score more highly if you can evidence how this person has:
- Led their team to excellent performance or improved their team/department service significantly
- Involved staff in decision-making, encouraged staff to make suggestions for change and enabled them to deliver improvements
- Developed a team of engaged, involved staff who enjoy coming to work
- Provided ongoing and regular support to an individual
- Constantly strives to improve themselves in order to continuously develop their skills as a leader.
Unsung Hero
Working tirelessly behind the scenes, they rarely receive recognition or acclaim for the vital work they do day in day out to keep our services running smoothly. This person largely goes unnoticed, but now is their time to shine. They may work in an area of the Group which is less high profile but their contribution is essential.
Your nomination will score more highly if you can show how this person has:
- Helped to improve the team/department/service/trust
- Contributed to the delivery of great care/patient experience/safety etc.
- Consistently excelled in their role
- Has acted as a role model for staff and or patients/service users, providing a consistent approach to their role.
Outstanding Clinical Team
The winning clinical team will have great team spirit and sense of collective purpose. They will communicate and engage well with their colleagues and other parts of the Group and will have excelled themselves in the last 12 months with an inspirational effort.
You may score more highly if your application includes details of the following:
- Demonstrates how the team contributes to the delivery of great care and shows excellence team spirit and camaraderie in doing that
- Specific examples of where the team has excelled itself and where they have demonstrated the Trust values/behaviours
- Details of excellent communication, staff engagement, service improvements and partnership working either within or outside of the Trust
Outstanding Support Team
The winning support team will have a great team spirit and sense of collective purpose. They will communicate and engage well with their colleagues and other parts of the Trust and will have excelled themselves in the last 12 months with an inspirational effort.
You may score more highly if your application includes details of the following:
- Demonstrates how the team contributes to the delivery of great care and shows excellence team spirit and camaraderie in doing that
- Specific examples of where the team has excelled itself and where they have demonstrated the Trust values/behaviours
- Details of excellent communication, staff engagement, service improvements and partnership working either within or outside of the Trust
Chief Executive’s Award
Our Chief Executive will choose a winner from our Shining Lights awards scheme.
Shining Lights gives staff and members of the public the chance to tell us about the things that have made them proud to work for the NHS and our Group, or about the excellent care they have received. Every day the NHS works miracles but a lot of the time these go unheard. This scheme gives people the chance to shine a light on those special moments.
The Chief Executive will choose a winner from submissions made over the previous 12 months.
Lifetime Achievement – for individuals who have dedicated at least 25 years of their career to the NHS
The winning individual will have dedicated at least 25 years of their career to the NHS. They will truly reflect the 6Cs: Care, Compassion, Competence, Courage, Communication, Commitment; and embody the values of the organisation.
You will score more highly if you can show how this person has:
- Demonstrated altruism and compassion in their working life
- Committed their career to improving services for the benefit of patients and/or staff
- Consistently achieved a high standard of performance in their role
- Acted as an inspiration and role model to others