The Social Worker of the Year Awards is open to social work students, practitioners, teams and organisations working to support individuals, families and communities across England.

The full terms and conditions for the Social Worker of the Year Awards 2026 can be found below. If you have any questions regarding your entry to the awards, please email awards@socialworkawards.com and we will be pleased to help.

GENERAL INFORMATION

  • The awards are open to social work students, independent practitioners, teams, organisations and direct employers operating in the public, private or voluntary sectors.
  • All nominees must be registered with Social Work England unless otherwise stated.
  • Submissions will only be accepted for the specified categories.
  • Nomination is free of charge.
  • Nominees must be willing for their name and image to be used for publicity purposes.
  • All submitted entries will remain confidential and the property of Social Work Awards Ltd in line with data protection and current GDPR guidelines.
  • 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 award categories are sponsored by organisations associated with the social work sector.
  • No purchase or contractual relationship with the promoter (i.e. attendance at the awards ceremony) is necessary for eligibility to nominate or be nominated.
  • No liability arising from nominating or being nominated for the Social Work Awards shall pertain to the promoters.
  • 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 the Social Work England) following a nomination submission and leading up to the awards ceremony, will notify Social Work Awards Ltd immediately.
  • Social Work Awards Ltd and the independent judging panel reserve the right to make decisions relating to any changes at any time to the Social Work Awards process.

AWARDS NIGHT PRESENTATION

  • The Awards ceremony for the Social Worker of the Year Awards 2026 will be held in October 2025 in London.
  • Each Gold Award winner will receive 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.
  • Finalists are encouraged to attend the awards ceremony (or nominate a representative to attend on their behalf if they are unavailable) but it is not a requirement. Finalists must be willing for their names and images to be used for publicity purposes.
  • All ticket sales are final unless explicitly stated otherwise. No refunds are available.

NOMINATION PROCESS

  • All entrants must be registered with Social Work England unless otherwise stated. Team entries must include a lead entrant who is registered with Social Work England.
  • Nominees may enter themselves into individual categories or they may be nominated by a third party who must include the nominee’s 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 managemen or other relevant professional to indicate acceptance of these rules. Contact details for each endorser must be included in the nomination form.
  • The Social Work Awards Ltd reserves the right to contact endorsers in any submitted entry to verify nominations are truthful and factually correct.
  • Incomplete applications may be excluded from the final selection process.

It may be the case that nominations are from the same organisation as the category sponsor. The judging process is overseen by a member of the Board of Trustees, judges are independent, and any conflicts of interest are identified at the beginning of the process and judges are asked to remove themselves from that category panel. We are confident in the way the judging process is conducted and the mitigation measures in place to make sure judging is not biased in any way.

JUDGING PROCESS

  • For each individual category, a panel of independent judges will determine the final shortlist. Each panel will consist of a minimum four judges across a variety of organisations (public, private and third sector). A full list of judges and their relevant categories will be published on the Social Worker of the Year Awards website once judging is complete.
  • 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 session during the judging process of that specific entrant.
  • The finalists will be selected by independent judges using predetermined 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.
  • The judging panel reserves the right to disqualify any entry which they consider, in their sole discretion, to be in breach of a category or Awards criteria.