Queens’ College Secures Double Triumph at the 2026 RoSPA Awards

The College was awarded the prestigious RoSPA Gold Award, as well as the highly competitive Most Improved Member award, marking an incredible year of achievement and improvement for operational standards at Queens’.

Queens’ College Domestic Bursar, Andy Bainbridge (centre left) receiving the award for Most Improved Member at the RoSPA 2026 Awards

The internationally recognised RoSPA Awards are among the most prestigious health and safety awards in the world, celebrating organisations that demonstrate an unyielding commitment to continuous improvement in accident and ill-health prevention for over 70 years.

Receiving a Gold Award recognises that Queens’ College has implemented a rigorous and well-developed health and safety management system. For a historic institution like ours, which needs to balance centuries-old architecture with the daily needs of a modern academic community of over a thousand students, Fellows and staff, this honour is particularly important in demonstrating our exemplary standards of care to all our members and our institution.

While the Gold Award relates to the College’s current safety status, the Most Improved Member award underscores a rapid and comprehensive transformation of our safety procedures and standards. This specific award recognises the institution that has made the most significant and proactive strides in accelerating its safety culture, risk auditing, and training protocols over the past year.

These victories hold particular significance for Queens’ Health & Safety team, as the College’s Safety Officer, Ian Slack, retired in May 2026 making this double win an incredibly fitting and well-deserved high note on which to conclude his career at Queens’.

Andrew Bainbridge, Domestic Bursar, commented:

“These awards reflect a collective, college-wide dedication to student welfare and operational excellence. Safeguarding a historic site while managing a complex, multi-layered staffing structure and large-scale catering operation is a highly demanding task. This national recognition confirms that Queens’ College is leading the way in higher education safety, and it is a fantastic culmination of the hard work put in by our Safety Officer, Ian Slack, ahead of his retirement this May.”

With this double success, Queens’ College is delighted to not only reinforce our reputation for academic brilliance but also begin to establish ourselves as a benchmark for workplace welfare, hospitality management, and community safety within the University of Cambridge network.