Seni Lewis Award 2025
About the award
The Seni Lewis Award was created as a lasting legacy in honour of Olaseni ‘Seni’ Lewis, who tragically died in 2010, at Bethlem Royal Hospital, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) after being held in prolonged restraint.
The Seni Lewis Award recognises exceptional work that strengthens co-operation between mental health services and the police, helping to prevent future tragedies and ensure care is delivered with dignity and respect.
This award is a partnership between 萝莉视频 (RCPsych), the Metropolitain Police Service and SLaM.
Shortlists will be announced in the autumn and the winner will be presented at an event at Prescot Street on 15 December.
Who can enter?
NHS teams and partner organisations across the UK are invited to submit nominations showcasing how their work is improving safety for people in crisis, reducing restrictive practices, and involving patients and carers in shaping services.
A team can only be nominated once, multiple nominations for the same team won't be accepted and nominators will be asked to consolidate their entries into one.
Entry criteria
Entries should relate to work undertaken, at least in part, between July 2024 and July 2025.
The entry should describe how the team demonstrates:
- Describe the rational for the partnership, what prompted it and who instigated it
- Detail how different departments engaged with the partnership, and any board-level buy-in that supported this from the organisation or the police force.
- Outline the goals set, and what measures were put in place to achieve them.
- Evidence that the partnership with the police has increased patient safety, reduced serious incidents
- Provide supporting testimonials from staff at the organisation and police and patients.
- Show clear improvements in patient safety across the organisation, supported by quantitative data, covering multiple aspects of the safe delivery of care.
- Demonstrate how the partnership working has spread throughout the organisation.
- Provide specific examples of how this spread could be replicated in other settings or organisations.
- Clearly evidence how the partnership has improved value for patients and staff, in terms of patient experience, staff satisfaction and quality of care.
- If possible, provide evidence of value creation in other areas, in terms of increased capacity, reduced adverse events (and therefore investigatory or litigation costs) and/or improved efficiencies.
- Describe how staff, patients and other stakeholders across the organisation were engaged in designing and creating the partnership.
- Provide clear evidence of partnership working with the police fully engaging in the work, including managers, medics and nurses as well as patients and families, and how this has led to improved safety.
Further questions
If you have any questions about the Seni Lewis Award that aren't answered on this page, please contact MembershipServices@rcpsych.ac.uk.