Deadline: 3-Feb-23
Frontline is seeking nominations for its Frontline Awards in 2023 to recognize excellent practice, leadership and innovation in children’s social work.
They are the perfect opportunity to celebrate the fantastic work that so many social workers are doing to support almost 700,000 children and their families across England each year. The awards will also provide a platform to highlight and share the achievements of young people who have had the support of a social worker.
The Frontline Awards will sit alongside other fantastic award ceremonies that take place in the sector. They will provide another opportunity to shine a spotlight on the amazing work that social workers do. Their awards will focus specifically on children’s social work and celebrating young people with lived experience.
Award Categories
- The Frontline Award for Leadership
- This award recognises an individual social worker who is demonstrating excellent social work leadership within a local authority, improving social work delivery to benefit children and families.
- The Frontline Award for Practice
- This award recognises an individual frontline social worker working in a local authority, who is delivering excellent practice which is helping to improve outcomes for children and families.
- The Frontline Award for Innovation
- This award recognises innovation within social work, helping to create social change for children and families who do not have a safe or stable home. This category is open to anyone qualified and registered as a social worker.
- The Frontline Award for Team of the Year
- This award recognises a team of social workers or a multi-agency team who have done outstanding work to improve support for children and families. For multi-agency teams at least one member should be a practicing social worker within children’s services.
- The Frontline Award for Young People
- This award recognises a young person (aged 16-25) with first-hand experience of the social care system and will be awarded to them for their achievements, or to recognize that they have gone above and beyond to help create change within the sector.
- The Fellowship Award
- This award recognises a fellow or group of fellows who have made a significant contribution to the sector in a specific area. For 2023, Frontline will make this award to a fellow or group of fellows who have demonstrated strong anti-racist practice, leadership or innovation in the delivery of their social work.
Award Criteria
- The Frontline Award for Leadership
- This category is open to social workers working in statutory social work in children’s services;
- They are looking for evidence of this leadership and what impact this is having for children and families.
- The Frontline Award for Practice
- This category is open to social workers working in statutory social work in children’s services;
- They are looking for an existing example of excellent practice and the impact this is having for children and families.
- Nominations should demonstrate the following:
- A strengths-based approach to social work practice;
- A commitment to engaging the whole family, listening to children and building effective relationships;
- The ability to be able to balance strengths and risks
- Children front and Centre of all decisions.
- The Frontline Award for Innovation
- This category is open to anyone qualified and registered as a social worker (though they do not have to be working as a practicing social worker);
- They are looking for evidence of a new idea, initiative or service that is being developed and implemented to create lasting social change for children and families who are receiving support from social workers;
- Results may not have been fully realized yet but a clear statement of anticipated outcomes and performance against the objectives of the innovation should be explained.
- The Frontline Award for Team of the Year
- For multi-agency teams nominated at least one member should be a practicing social worker within children’s services. Other members can be from other professions or agencies;
- Nominations should demonstrate how the team has taken individual strengths and brought these together to collaborate and create change;
- Please note when they say team they are referring to teams who work together regularly and not project teams;
- A team can be made up of a maximum of 10 people, with two members representing the team at the event in London, should you win.
- The Frontline Award for Young People
- This category is open to any expert by experience (person with first-hand lived experience of the social care system) between 16 and 25;
- An achievement could be in education, sport, music, dance and many more. They welcome nominations on a variety of achievements;
- For a nomination around creating change in the sector, they are looking for evidence of how they are working to help create change for children and families.
- The Fellowship Award
- The winner of this award will be chosen by Frontline’s judging panel from among the charity’s 2,000 fellows;
- They are looking for evidence of anti-racist practice, leadership or innovation in action and how a fellow/group of fellows has taken initiative to improve racial diversity and inclusion within social work;
- They would like to hear about the impact of this initiative, either organizationally, within the professional network or for an individual child and their family.
- Additional criteria for all social worker awards In addition to the category-specific criteria, all awards must demonstrate:
- a commitment to anti-oppressive practice
- a commitment to improving outcomes for children and families
- a commitment to relationship-based practice
- evidence of child and family being front and centre of the nominee’s approach
- They welcome nominations from anyone over the age of 16, you don’t have to be a social worker to nominate. They are particularly looking for nominations from young people with lived experience of social care, so please do share with young people you work with, children in care councils and young people’s organisations who might help spread the word. Under 16s can nominate with the support of an adult.
For more Information, visit Frontline Awards in 2023.