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RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year Awards 2027

Learning Disability Nursing Award

RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year Awards

About the category

RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year Awards 2027

Learning disability nurses help people of all ages with learning disabilities to maintain their health and wellbeing and to live their lives as fully and independently as possible.

Open to registered nurses working in learning disability 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 can be nominated?

A registered learning disability nurse working in a clinical role or managing clinical services within learning disability services across Scotland.

What is the criteria for consideration?

Each nominee 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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Submit a nomination

Nominate now

We have prepared some guidance which you may find useful when writing your nomination.

Ready to nominate?

Click 'Nominate now' below and fully complete the form to submit your nomination making sure your submission evidences how your candidate meets the criteria for the award. 

NOMINATE NOW

Nomination deadlines

The nomination process opened on 14 September and will be open until midnight on 20 November 2026.

What makes a winner?

Read about our previous winners of this category and what made them stand out as the #BestOfNursing in Scotland's learning disability nursing sector.

Nicola Braid Senior Nurse for Learning Disabilities
NHS 24

Nicola is described as an exceptional and visionary leader whose role as NHS 24’s first Senior Nurse for Learning Disabilities has transformed unscheduled care for people with learning disabilities, their families, and carers. She has provided strong clinical and strategic leadership, ensuring care is safe, accessible, and genuinely person-centred while actively reducing health inequalities. A key strength of her work is meaningful co-production, leading focus groups with people with learning disabilities and families to ensure service improvements are grounded in lived experience. Nicola pioneered the proactive identification of individuals with additional care needs, enabling timely reasonable adjustments and more compassionate support. She has driven significant improvements in workforce education, with 90% of staff reporting increased confidence following her learning disability training. Nicola has also improved digital accessibility and information through enhancements to NHS Inform and inclusive resources. Overall, her evidence-based, inclusive leadership has delivered measurable improvements in outcomes, culture, and equity across NHS 24 and NHS Scotland.

Nicola then went on to be named RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year 2026.
Assertive Outreach Team

Renfrewshire Learning Disability Service, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

The Assertive Outreach Model, part of the Renfrewshire Learning Disability Team, supports individuals with learning disabilities during crises, delayed discharges, and out-of-area placements. The team provides rapid, person-centered interventions, helping to sustain placements in the community, prevent hospital re-admissions, and assist individuals in transitioning back to their home areas. Despite initial challenges in staffing and establishing standard operating procedures, the team has received positive feedback from patients, families, carers, and other professionals for their impact. Their work has significantly alleviated caseload demands for their core nursing team, with notable successes in helping long-term inpatient patients sustain placements in the community. The team focuses on person-centered nursing assessments, creating care plans based on Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) principles, and providing intensive support for care providers.

LD-Queens-Nurses

Queen's Nursing Institute for Scotland (QNIS)

The QNIS Think COULD animation project aims to raise awareness about the need for better support for individuals with learning disabilities in the justice system. Funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing, the project involved eight learning disabilities nurses from Scotland completing the Queen’s Nurse development programme and creating an evidence-based project focused on adults with learning disabilities and the justice system. The key aims of the project were to co-design and produce an outcome to reduce inequalities, develop an accessible resource for practitioners about learning disabilities and reasonable adjustments, and highlight the unique contribution learning disabilities nurses make in reducing inequalities. The project identified gaps in support for people with learning disabilities in justice services and engaged with stakeholders, including those with lived experience of justice services, to address these gaps. The team developed an animation called Think COULD, emphasising Communication, Observe, Understand, and Learning Disability, as an educational tool. The animation was designed to be accessible, educational, and inclusive, with representation from diverse perspectives. It was launched in May 2023 and has had a significant impact, being embedded in Police Scotland training resources, shared with relevant organisations, and informing policy and practice.

Laura McCann

Community Learning Disability Senior Charge Nurse
Falkirk Learning Disability Team
NHS Forth Valley

Described by her team, in the nicest possible way, as infectious. As soon as Laura joined the Falkirk LD Integrated team she knew this was where she was meant to be. Laura’s nomination centres around a work programme she leads to support people with a learning disability to develop healthy relationships – an ability she says her patients have often been denied. With a strong and confident team behind her, she set about understanding individual needs to tailor the service and ensure it is adaptable to individual needs. She developed an eight-week programme on cyber safety and is currently working with her team and the wider multi-disciplinary team to develop support for those who experience gender based violence – working to embed trauma informed practice and improve the support offered by staff. One of Laura’s key achievements is ensuring that the team can now provide a consistent and equitable service across her locality, which she has achieved by sharing learning, upskilling colleagues and creating avenues for patients to be educated. Laura has ensured all the team’s work is rooted in strong evidence, working with sexual health nursing, local organisations who support gender based violence sufferers, and NHS Scotland to produce guidance for practitioners. Laura is keen to promote LD nursing and is working with universities to support practice placements. Her goal is to eventually go into high schools to promote LD nursing, and nursing in general, as a career choice.

Page last updated - 14/09/2026