Navigo celebrates Dr Nicola Airey’s BPS Early Career Researcher Award for SRACS, a first‑of‑its‑kind measure shaping safer suicide prevention care.
Navigo is proud to announce that Dr Nicola Airey has been awarded the British Psychological Society’s Early Career Researcher Best Paper Award for her pioneering work developing the Suicide Risk Assessment Confidence Scale (SRACS) — the first validated tool designed to understand how clinicians perceive their own confidence when assessing and managing suicide risk.
The award recognises early career research that makes a significant contribution to psychological practice. Nicola’s seven‑year programme, carried out with Professor Zaffer Iqbal (Navigo) and Dr Igor Menezes (University of Hull), addresses a long‑standing gap in suicide prevention. Despite the emotional and clinical complexity of suicide assessment, there has never been a standardised, evidence‑based way to measure clinician confidence. The SRACS changes that.
Through extensive development and psychometric validation, the SRACS shows that clinician confidence is multidimensional, made up of four distinct but interrelated components:
- Professional Conduct – confidence in ethical practice, boundaries and defensible decision‑making
- Competence – perceived knowledge, skill and preparedness
- Worry – the emotional load of suicide risk work
- Deference – reliance on external authority or rigid protocols when uncertain
This means a clinician may be highly skilled yet anxious, or conscientious yet hesitant to act independently. Understanding these nuances opens the door to more targeted training, supervision and professional development.
Developed through rigorous research
The SRACS was created through a multi‑stage process involving:
- Focus groups with 367 NHS mental health clinicians
- Expert panel review
- A 73‑item pilot questionnaire completed by 375 practitioners across psychology, psychiatry, nursing, social work and allied professions
The final 46‑item scale demonstrated strong psychometric properties and reliably captured the four dimensions of confidence across professional backgrounds and experience levels.
Dr Nicola Airey said:
“I’m honoured to receive the BPS Early Career Researcher Best Paper Award. Completing this research alongside the demands of doctoral training was both challenging and deeply rewarding, and this recognition affirms the value of persisting with work that meaningfully contributes to our field.”
Supporting clinicians across the UK and beyond
Nicola’s work is also informed by her long‑standing involvement in suicide prevention research and the implementation of CAMS (Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality) since 2018. CAMS‑care UK, which sits within Navigo, supports NHS services to adopt evidence‑based, person‑centred approaches to working with suicidal individuals.
The SRACS is already attracting interest from NHS trusts and international partners, including CAMS US. It is designed to be used:
- Before and after training programmes, to measure the impact of suicide‑specific CPD
- In clinical supervision, to support reflective practice and identify development needs
- As a research tool, to explore how confidence relates to decision‑making and patient outcomes
Professor Zaffer Iqbal said:
“We all recognise that suicide prevention work is highly stressful, and with suicide rates higher than they have been since the 1990’s, it is unsurprising that a clinician’s confidence and belief they can treat suicidality is affected.
"The SRACS developed organically from wanting a means to identify the strengths and areas for further development of clinicians working with suicidality.
"It was essential to understand whether new suicide prevention trainings or developments are having a positive effect on clinician confidence. We were very surprised that nothing existed to answer these important questions accurately, as without it you cannot fully appraise the value of suicide prevention innovations.”
This award‑winning research represents a significant step forward in understanding and supporting clinicians undertaking one of the most challenging tasks in mental health. By offering a nuanced, multidimensional view of confidence, the SRACS enables services to strengthen training, supervision and ultimately the quality and safety of suicide assessment.
We are incredibly proud of Nicola, Zaffer and the wider team for their dedication, innovation and contribution to suicide prevention practice.