A nurse who has worked in mental health care for 51 years has been presented with a Chief Nursing Officer for England Gold Award for outstanding service to nursing.
Allen Senivassen has worked at Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) since 2015, where he is currently Student Education Facilitator and Preceptorship Lead.
He has been committed to ensuring patients receive compassionate and personalised care since he joined the NHS as a mental health nurse in 1975.
Allen has worked with thousands of health care professionals, from students to leaders, to transform patient care. He has focused on teaching since 1988, emphasising the importance of patient-centred care alongside support and professional development for staff.
Michelle Horn, Director of Nursing, Leadership and Quality at NHS England, presented Allen with the award on behalf of Chief Nursing Officer for England, Duncan Burton, at a surprise ceremony at St Margaret’s Hospital, Epping.
Allen was nominated for the award by Debbie Cubitt, a Senior Clinical Manager for NHS England and preceptorship lead for the east of England.
Debbie, who has worked with Allen for more than 25 years, said: “This nomination is a tribute to his remarkable dedication to mental health nursing and a celebration of his 51-year contribution to the profession.
“Allen’s passion, leadership, and commitment to patient-centred care have left an enduring legacy. On behalf of all those he has inspired and supported, thank you, Allen.”
Allen, 71, said: “Everything we do is for our patients to receive the best care, and there is so much we can do for our patients to enhance their recovery and to enable them to move forward to enjoy a better quality of life.”
As a teenage football player in his home country of Mauritius, Allen’s team played friendly matches against young patients from a mental health hospital. He saw how football helped them to focus on the joy and camaraderie of the game, and not on their vulnerabilities. Eventually he played for a top division team.
He moved to the UK in 1975 to initially train as a mental health nurse. He started his nursing career at the former Friern Hospital in north London where his passion and commitment to work with colleagues and patients to bring about change in care delivery began.
During his time there, he introduced patient allocation, a system in which each patient had an assigned nurse responsible for overseeing their care. This improved the patients’ safety and wellbeing and enabled staff and patients to build better therapeutic relationships.
He also promoted better staff support and professional development, recognising that staff wellbeing was essential to good patient care.
Allen moved to Essex in 1988 as a nursing process co-ordinator and student education facilitator at St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping and Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow.
He became a senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University in 1992 and trained healthcare professionals across several NHS Trusts, emphasising the importance of patient-centred care, clinical supervision and reflective practice.
He also helped EPUT to establish its long-running Buddy Scheme, which enables patients and carers to share their experiences with students to build understanding and compassion.
Allen joined EPUT in 2015 and his work with the preceptorship team contributed to the Trust being awarded the National Preceptorship Interim Quality Mark in 2024, recognising the high standard of support provided to newly qualified nurses.
Senior leaders and colleagues joined Allen to celebrate his Chief Nursing Officer for England Gold Award and reflect on his career.
Thanking Allen for his “kindness, commitment and caring” to patients and staff over the last 51 years, Ann Sheridan, Executive Chief Nurse at EPUT, said: “What really struck me was in those really early years you recognised the people we work with as partners.
“We talk a lot today about partnership and co-production, and the true meaning of co-production is recognising the value and asset our patients bring to our relationships with them.
“While you will have seen many changes and different ways of working over those 51 years, what never changes is having that really good relationship with patients and families.”
Information about EPUT
- EPUT has a vision to be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care: Who we are – Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
- EPUT provides services to more than 100,000 patients at any one time and our staff are focused on providing high quality care in often complex situations.
- The organisation has invested in inpatient facilities and community services to make them safer and more therapeutic. We have extensively invested in technology to keep patients safer, enhanced training, and are continuously working with our staff, patients, their families and carers to use learning and best practice to enhance our quality of care.
- While there is more to do, the Trust has made significant progress through innovation:
- Our 111 mental health crisis phone line ensures people in need can access support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
- People with lived experience have been employed in designated roles across the Trust, ensuring patient voice is heart of the organisation and all that we do.
- A number of new initiatives have been launched, helping people access the support they need when they need it most. These include a mental health urgent care department, By Your Side maternal mental health service, Rough Sleeper team, mental health crisis ambulance cars, virtual wards and neuromodulation service.
- EPUT was formed on 1 April 2017 and provides community health, mental health and learning disability services across Essex, Luton and Bedfordshire and Suffolk. We employ more than 7,200 staff working across more than 200 sites.
- To read more about our priorities and commitments to deliver the highest quality and safest care possible, visit https://eput.nhs.uk/about-us/2023-2028-strategic-plan/