Leighton nursing team wins national award for life-saving infant sleep initiative

Emergency Department nurses at Leighton Hospital claimed a prestigious national award for their work to reduce the risk of sudden infant death.

The team won the accolade at the 2025 Nursing Times Awards following the success of an innovative project that delivers safer sleep education to families while their children are in A&E.

As they revealed the top honour in the Critical and Emergency Care Nursing category, judges praised Mid Cheshire Hospitals staff for their compassionate, non-judgemental, collaborative approach.

The Nursing Times citation said: “It is an example where preventative measures are embedded into clinical practice at presentation to the Emergency Department.

“With strong potential for replication in other organisations across the UK, this project empowers families and healthcare teams alike, reducing harm and the risk of sudden infant death.”

Mid Cheshire Hospitals works with partners including the Lullaby Trust to provide safer sleep information for families with children aged under one year old.

The Emergency Department initiative was launched in 2024 and has delivered advice to more than 800 parents and carers.

This advice includes:

• always place your baby on their back to sleep
• keep your baby, or any baby you’re caring for, in the same room as you when they’re sleeping until they’re at least six months old
• keep your baby’s head uncovered – tuck your baby’s blanket under their arms so the blanket cannot move and cover their head
• if wearing your baby in a sling or carrier, make sure you use it safely
• place your baby in the ‘feet to foot’ position, with their feet touching the end of the cot or Moses basket
• do not let your baby get too hot or cold
• never sleep with your baby on a sofa or armchair
• do not co-sleep with your baby if you (or anyone in the bed) smokes, has drunk alcohol or has taken drugs or medicine that make you feel drowsy
• do not smoke when you’re pregnant or around your baby after they’re born, and do not let anyone smoke in the same room as your baby

For more information on safer sleep advice, click here: https://www.nhs.uk/baby/caring-for-a-newborn/reduce-the-risk-of-sudden-infant-death-syndrome/

Emergency Department paediatric nurses Ashleigh Hall and Kirstie Orr led the safer sleep project.

Ashleigh said: “Safer sleep advice is hugely important and being able to offer that guidance face-to-face, while families are already with us in the Emergency Department means we can make a real difference.

“Within the first two weeks of the project starting, we’d already seen the information reach 70% of the parents of under ones who are visiting us.”

Her colleague Kirstie said: “This initiative is about providing simple, clear, supportive information and giving them confidence that they know what to do around safer sleep.

“As a team, we want to deliver those messages in the most beneficial ways possible because ultimately this can help to prevent avoidable tragedies.”

On top of the Emergency Department nursing team’s success, another staff member was also recognised at the 2025 Nursing Times Awards.

Laura Reynolds, Deputy Director of Community Services at Central Cheshire Integrated Care Partnership (CCICP), was a finalist in the Nurse Leader of the Year category.