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Emily Vincent, Community Nursery Nurse (APHP) was impressively awarded Community Nursery Nurse of the Year 2024 at the Unite-CPHVA conference in Birmingham in November.

The Unite-CPHVA Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate outstanding work in community practice, including health visiting, school nursing, and community nursery nursing. This year was the first year of these awards, taking place during the Unite-CPHVA (Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association) Conference, and we are proud that Emily was the first recipient of the Community Nursery Nurse of the Year Award.

Emily was nominated by Kirsty Jacques (Health Visitor Clinical Lead for SEND) and Jean Torrance (Health Visitor, Stevenage Team), highlighting her fantastic work with SEND children and how both families and colleagues value her knowledge and support.

They said that Emily is a “passionate, professional Community Nursery Nurse who is known to support families with additional needs brilliantly. Recently, when staff were asked to volunteer to support the Early Years Support Session and to be part of a multi-agency professional team in offering support to children with emerging needs Emily volunteered without hesitation.

“Emily constantly seeks ways to improve her own knowledge and skills and often has quality improvement ideas, to support both families and colleagues. She embraces her role as SEND champion, supporting her colleagues to offer appropriate SEND support to children under their care.”

Her nomination included positive feedback from both colleagues and parents, such as the below grateful feedback from a parent:

“For the first few years of my boy's lives me and my husband struggled navigating SEN parenthood. […] When I met Emily it was like a breath of fresh air, I cannot tell you how validating it was just to have her listen, watch and be present. She was wonderful with the boys. It made such a difference to me, I cannot tell you. She also gave me time to run through resources that could be helpful for my children, which was brilliant. […] I cannot thank Emily enough for her care, time and support over the years.”

When asked about receiving her award, Emily said: “I feel honoured to have received the award of Nursery Nurse of the year, but I would also like to say that my fellow Nursery Nurse colleagues very much deserve this award too! I had a wonderful evening celebrating in Birmingham with my colleagues. I feel very grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of the Stevenage Health visiting team!”