An Essex nurse who has dedicated 51 years to mental health care has been honored with the Chief Nursing Officer for England Gold Award for outstanding service to nursing. Allen Senivassen, 71, has worked at Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) since 2015.
Allen has been committed to ensuring patients receive compassionate and personalised care since he joined the NHS in 1975. Over the decades, he has worked with thousands of healthcare professionals, from students to leaders, to transform patient care. Since 1988, he has focused on teaching, emphasising the importance of patient-centred care alongside support and professional development for staff. He currently serves as the Trust's student education facilitator and preceptorship lead.
Allen was presented with the award by Michelle Horn, director of nursing, leadership and quality at NHS England, during a surprise ceremony at St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping. He was nominated by Debbie Cubitt, who has worked with him for more than 25 years.
“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,” Cubitt said.
Allen reflected: “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.”
Early Inspirations and Career
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 focus on the joy and camaraderie of the game, not on their vulnerabilities.
Allen moved to the UK in 1975 to train as a mental health nurse and began his career at the former Friern Hospital in north London. There, he introduced patient allocation—a system where each patient had an assigned nurse responsible for overseeing their care—to build better therapeutic relationships. He also promoted better staff support and professional development, recognising that staff wellbeing was essential to good patient care.
In 1988, Allen moved to Essex 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, training healthcare professionals across several NHS Trusts. He also helped EPUT establish its long-running Buddy Scheme, which enables patients and carers to share their experiences with students to build understanding and compassion.
Recent Achievements and Recognition
Allen joined EPUT in 2015, and his work with the preceptorship team contributed to the Trust receiving the National Preceptorship Interim Quality Mark in 2024, recognising the high standard of support provided to newly qualified nurses. Senior leaders and colleagues gathered to celebrate his Chief Nursing Officer for England Gold Award and reflect on his career.
“What really struck me was in those really early years you recognised the people we work with as partners,” said Ann Sheridan, executive chief nurse at EPUT. “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.”
