Leeds Health and Care Academy is delighted to announce that our Talent Hub has been shortlisted for Workforce Initiative of the Year at the HSJ Awards, recognising an outstanding contribution to healthcare and securing a place at the prestigious awards ceremony later this year.
1300+ entries have been received for this year’s Awards, with 231 projects and individuals reaching the final shortlist. The high volume and exceptional quality of applications showcases the impressive levels of innovation and care continually being developed within the UK’s healthcare networks.
Following the thorough judging process, Leeds Health and Care Academy was shortlisted, ahead of the official awards ceremony to be held later this year (19th November), with its Talent Hub standing out as a real ‘success story’ worthy of a prized place on the panel’s shortlist.
Providing a single talent pipeline for a city’s health and social care workforce while improving people’s health with work. Staggering retention rates and £3.3m in saved recruitment costs. This is what Leeds Health and Care Academy’s Talent Hub has delivered. With a 66% increase in people engaging in 2025, this targeted project is a place‑based system enabler in the city’s six most deprived wards, aligning employers, skills provision, health‑aware support and specialist services to ensure people are not only supported into work, but supported to stay in work and progress
Shell Stanley, Head of Leeds One Workforce at Leeds Health and Care Academy comments, “We are delighted to be shortlisted for Workforce Initiative of the Year at the HSJ Awards 2026. It will be a huge boost for our dedicated and hard-working team, especially in a year when the competition was so tough with an unprecedented volume of entries from so many other equally deserving Trusts and individuals.
“Whatever the result ‘on the night’, we already feel like winners for getting this far and are so proud to have the opportunity to share our success with colleagues from across the entire sector, as well as showcasing everything we’ve learnt through implementing our project.”
HSJ editor Alastair McLellan, adds; “It always gives me great pleasure to congratulate our finalists at this stage of the judging process and this year is no exception as we acknowledge Leeds Health and Care Academy for being shortlisted in the category of Workforce Initiative of the Year.
“However, it’s always important to remember that the HSJ Awards are not just a celebration of success stories but also a platform to shape the future of the NHS.
“We can’t wait to welcome our finalists to the awards ceremony in November and to recognise and applaud such impressive achievements across the sector. Huge thanks also go to our headline partner, Lloyds Clinical, who share our mission of driving the standard of healthcare excellence and creating better patient experiences.”
The selected winners will be announced during the awards ceremony at Evolution London on 19th November 2026.
The event not only reflects the HSJ Awards’ enduring ethos of “sharing best practice, improving patient outcomes and innovating drivers of better service” but will also serve as a timely and well-deserved thank you to the sector.
The awards judging panel was once again made up of a diverse range of highly influential and respected figures within the healthcare community, as well as a range of esteemed board level executives from NHS Trusts across the UK.
The full list of nominees for the 2026 HSJ awards can be found at https://awards.hsj.co.uk/shortlist-2026 alongside details of the Awards partners at https://awards.hsj.co.uk/partners.
