RULES OF ENTRY
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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.
Help and Advice
If you have any questions regarding your entry to the Social Worker of the Year Awards, you can email awards@socialworkawards.com or call 01473 326 435 and we will be pleased to help.
GENERAL INFORMATION
AWARDS NIGHT PRESENTATION
NOMINATION PROCESS
JUDGING PROCESS
GENERAL INFORMATION
- The awards are open to direct employers, organisations and independent practitioners operating in the public, private or voluntary sectors, regardless of the service user category or size of organisation except where the category name indicates otherwise.
- Submissions will only be accepted for the specified categories.
- Nomination entry is free of charge.
- Nominees must be prepared to accept their award in person during the awards presentation (or identify a representative to attend on their behalf) and be willing for their names and images to be used for publicity purposes.
- All submitted entries will remain confidential and the property of Social Work Awards Ltd. Names and contact details will not be shared with third parties due to data protection.
- Upon submission of entry, nominees agree that Social Work Awards Ltd may use information provided in the entry form for press purposes and published case studies. No confidential information will be shared or disclosed.
- The promoters are Social Work Awards Ltd and individual awards are sponsored by organisations and companies associated with the social work sector.
- No purchase or contractual relationship with the promoter is necessary for eligibility to nominate or be nominated.
- Social Work Awards Ltd and the independent judging panel reserve the right to make decisions relating to any changes at any time through the Social Work Awards process.
AWARDS NIGHT PRESENTATION
- The virtual event will be held online on Wednesday 17th November 2021. Tickets for the event will be free of charge.
- The awards consist of a celebratory trophy and certificate. Finalists will receive a certificate and may describe themselves as such for the category in their corporate literature. They may not claim that their products or services are endorsed by Social Work Awards Ltd.
- Nominees must be prepared to accept their award virtually during the awards presentation (or identify a representative to attend on their behalf) and be willing for their names and images to be used for publicity purposes.
NOMINATION PROCESS
- All entrants must be registered with Social Work England (this does not apply to the Social Work Employer, University of the Year or Student Social Worker categories). For team entries, the registration number for the Team Manager / Leader must be included.
- Nominees may enter themselves into individual categories or they may be nominated by a third party who must include their contact details.
- Nominations will only be accepted if submitted through the official online entry portal.
- A separate nomination must be completed for each category entered.
- The nomination form must be endorsed by a member of senior management to indicate acceptance of these rules.
- Incomplete applications will be excluded from the final selection process.
- Category sponsors may not make a nomination into the category of which they are the sponsor.
JUDGING PROCESS
- For each individual category, a panel of independent judges will determine the final shortlist. A full list of judges can be found here.
- 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 our sponsors (to avoid any potential conflicts of interest they do not judge the category that they are supporting) and peers/colleagues (we invite a select number of winners from the previous year to join our 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.