Finalists announced for Social Worker of the Year Awards 2018

The shortlist of finalists for the Social Worker of the Year Awards 2018 has been announced.

93 social workers and social work teams from across England have been selected as finalists across 16 different categories, celebrating the achievements of practitioners in both children’s and adult services. The winners from each category will compete against each other to be named the ‘Overall Social Worker of the Year 2018’.

The winners will be revealed at a prestigious awards ceremony in London in November, which is the leading celebration of its kind in the sector and recognises the success of the profession’s most innovative and dedicated social workers.

James Rook, Managing Director of the awards’ headline sponsor, Sanctuary Social Care, said: “The Social Worker of the Year awards are continuing to grow and thrive and we’re delighted that this year we’ve received our highest number of entries, following on from the success of a record-breaking year in 2017.

“The standard of entries and level of competition is very strong, so all shortlisted nominees should be extremely proud.  We look forward to welcoming our finalists and their guests to the awards ceremony in November to celebrate their outstanding achievements in the profession.”

The Social Worker of the Year Awards are supported by Headline Sponsor Sanctuary Social Care; Corporate Partner the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), Media Partner The Guardian, and individual category supporters, Barnardo’s, UNISON, Servelec HSC, Children’s Social Work Matters and the London Borough of Lambeth. The awards are also supported by the local authorities of North Lincolnshire, Bradford, Devon, Kent, Sunderland, Hampshire and Essex as well as the Tees Valley Local Authority Child and Adult Services – a partnership between the local authorities of Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Darlington, Redcar & Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees.

Peter Hay CBE, Chair of the Social Work Awards charity which organises the awards, added: “We’re incredibly grateful to all of our sponsors for supporting the Social Worker of the Year Awards, as all of this is only made possible thanks to the generosity of the organisations that support us. Our aim is to celebrate the outstanding achievements of social workers and social work teams and we’ve been truly humbled by the huge praise coming from people who have benefitted from great social work.

We’re also delighted that more people who have received support from social workers have been represented on our judging panel this year, including young people from the Cafcass Young People Family Justice Board and Barnardo’s and representatives from the Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) partnership.”

The full shortlist of finalists for the Social Worker of the Year Awards 2018 is as follows: