Our innovative ways of tackling green issues through energy saving initiatives, night audits of our sites, and aiming to reduce the Trust’s carbon footprint by 18 per cent by 2015 – ahead of a national NHS target of 10 per cent by 2015 - impressed the judges.

Neil Cross, the Trust’s energy and environment manager, said: “It was really great to receive the award in recognition of the hard work undertaken by many colleagues across the Trust in being more sustainable and managing our resources more effectively.

“Just by getting staff to turn off heating, switching off lights and computers when they’re not being used has helped us make avoidance savings of more than £80,000. We’ve also achieved 60 per cent domestic recycling across all 100 Trust sites.

"We’re one of the greenest mental health trusts in the country, and we’re still looking for ways to improve on that, but I think winning this award shows that we’re leading the way.”

Sue Turner, our chief executive, congratulated all staff involved. She said: “This is fantastic news for our Trust and winning this HSJ Award shows how committed our staff are to delivering the very best care not only to its service users but to their carers, families and support workers.

“It is also a reflection of the continued dedication and professionalism of our staff and their determination to provide high quality care in new ways. We certainly have much to be proud of.”

The HSJ Awards are the UK’s largest health service awards. Winning or being shortlisted for one of these is a real achievement as more than 1,000 entries were made this year.

The ceremony was opened by Health Secretary Andy Burnham and attended by more than 1,300 guests. For more details about the awards and the full list of winners go to www.hsjawards.co.uk.