Deadline: 23-Jul-21
Nominations are now open for the Social Worker of the Year Awards 2021. The event will highlight social workers’ outstanding work during the last 12 months and turn their focus towards supporting people to reconnect and to move forward from their experiences during the pandemic.
Award Categories
- Children’s Social Worker of the Year
- This award is open to all qualified social workers who have made a positive impact through their outstanding work with children and families.
- Adult Social Worker of the Year
- This award is open to all qualified social workers who have made a positive impact through their outstanding work with adults.
- Newly Qualified Social Worker of the Year
- This award is open to all newly qualified social workers with less than one year’s experience who have made a positive difference to the lives of either adults or children and families through their outstanding work. The entry should show how they have forged effective relationships, effected change and demonstrated resilience.
- Student Social Worker of the Year
- This award is open to all university students studying social work who are showing outstanding potential in their studies. They will be able to demonstrate how they have surpassed expectations and have a thorough understanding of social work theory and practice.
- Team of the Year (including MDTs)
- This award is open to all social work teams who have been able not just to continue through Covid-19, but to adapt and innovate. This is for the team who have made a big difference through their outstanding work in such difficult circumstances. The award is open to both Adult, Children and Families and Mental Health teams.
- Team Leader of the Year
- This award is open to team leaders or department managers who are responsible for either adult or children’s social work teams. Nominees must be able to evidence clear leadership skills and provide evidence of how they have either: nurtured an effective working environment/achieved cultural change/improved service quality and outcomes.
- Mental Health Social Worker of the Year
- This category is open to metal health social workers working in both children’s and adult services. This award is for practitioners who excel in delivering positive outcomes for the people they support. Whether through create, compassionate or effective multi-disciplinary working, they want to hear from individuals providing outstanding support in a challenging and complex area.
- Social Work Employer of the Year
- This award is open to any organisation within the social services profession who can demonstrate excellent practice as an employer in supporting, leading and championing their social work employees.
- Practice Educator of the Year
- This award is open to social workers who are involved in mentoring and supervising students and newly qualified social workers. Nominees must be able to demonstrate how they have successfully coached and mentored students to develop their skills in social work.
- Social Justice Advocate Award
- This award is grounded in the IFSW statement of ethical principles. It is open to all social workers who demonstrate a commitment to challenging injustice, seek to equalize the position of different social groups and challenge discriminatory systems. This category will be judged by people with lived experience of social work support.
- University of the Year
- The award is for the University which is providing outstanding and effective social work education for its students, shaping the social workers of tomorrow in to reflective, compassionate and resilient practitioners.
- Outstanding Contribution during Covid-19
- The ‘Winner of Winners’ The Board of Trustees will choose the Overall Social Worker of the Year from the individual category winners.
Eligibility Criteria
- The Social Worker of the Year awards are open to qualified social workers (must be registered with Social Work England) and teams working in England. If you are working in Wales, follow to find out about the BASW Social Work Awards (Cymru/Wales) or in Scotland the BASW Scotland Social Work Awards.
- The Social Worker of the Year Awards are open to qualified social workers currently working in England.
- Nominees must be fully qualified and registered with Social Work England.
- Nominees may enter themselves into individual categories or they may be nominated by a third party who must include their contact details.
- All nominations must be made through the online entry system.
Judging Criteria
- The judging panel is made up of: leading industry professionals (invited to join the panel based upon their expertise within the social work sector), former care leavers and people who have received support from social workers, representatives from some of their sponsors (to avoid any potential conflicts of interest they do not judge the category that they are supporting) and peers/colleagues (they invite a select number of winners from the previous year to join their judging panel for a year)
- All judges are required to declare any conflicts of interest and will refrain from judging any entrants deemed to have a conflict. Should any conflicts arise, the judge shall remove themselves from the room during the judging process of that specific entrant.
- Assessment process: The finalists will be selected by independent judges using the outlined criteria. All judges will provide a score for each entry; chosen finalists will be those with the highest scores received from the panel.
- The judges’ decision will be final. No correspondence will be entered into.
- No liability arising from nominating or being nominated for the Social Work Awards shall pertain to the promoters.
- The judging panel reserves the right to disqualify any entry which they consider, in their sole discretion, to be in breach of the awards criteria.
- Any nominee subject to complaints, investigations or disciplinary action (past or present) (by employer or Social Work England) shall be declared upon application to the awards. This will not necessarily mean disqualification, but will be taken on an individual case and is at the discretion of Social Work Awards Ltd and the partners.
- A nominator, whose nominee becomes subject to complaints, investigations or disciplinary action (by employer or Social Work England) following a nomination submission and leading up to the awards ceremony, will notify Social Work Awards Ltd immediately.
For more information, visit https://www.socialworkawards.com/