Bright ideas: Civil Service Awards opens for nominations

Celebration of excellence in public service marks 15th birthday with its biggest-ever category range

By Civil Service World

14 Sep 2020

The Civil Service Awards have opened for nominations with the largest range of categories to salute innovation and excellence in public service in the event’s history.

Sixteen separate awards, ranging from Diversity and Inclusion to Resilience and Rapid Response offer individuals and teams the opportunity to show how they shine at work, while the Rising Star Award combines achievement to date with the potential for more.

Organised in partnership between the Cabinet Office and Civil Service World’s parent company, Dods, the Civil Service Awards are an pportunity to demonstrate the innovation and commitment civil servants display in meeting the challenges faced by the nation.

This year, in responding to the coronavirus crisis, the Civil Service has seen extraordinary commitment and creativity and unprecedented changes in the way we work. Civil servants have gone to unparalleled lengths to deliver public services.

The Civil Service Awards team hopes to see these efforts recognised across all categories, both in terms of the new ways of working that have been developed to support those most affected by the pandemic, and also the incredibly important work that has been done to keep delivering business as usual across the length and breadth of the UK.

Categories

  • Citizenship: Recognising exceptional individuals who go way beyond what could reasonably be expected of them, to improve the lives of citizens or communities. Their contributions could be in the workplace, or as volunteers outside work, or both. 
  • Collaboration: Recognising excellent collaboration that spans the boundaries between sectors, administrations, or layers of government. 
  • Commercial: Recognising exemplary commercial skill and sound business judgement in delivering an exceptional outcome, with value for money for government. 
  • Communication and Engagement: Recognising highly effective communications activity with significant positive outcomes. Nominations could describe a communications campaign, a consultation, or a different engagement activity. 
  • Developing People: Recognising excellence across all areas of learning, skills development, strengthening capability, and talent management. 
  • Digital, Data and Technology: Recognising excellence in the application of digital technologies or data to solve a problem or make things better for users and celebrating people whose commitment to data-driven and technological improvements reach measurable outcomes. 
  • Diversity and Inclusion: A winner of winners from the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Awards; an award that recognises real achievement and success at all levels of the Civil Service.
  • Health and Wellbeing: Recognising people who have made a highly effective contribution to promoting or improving health and wellbeing within the Civil Service. 
  • Innovation: Recognising the outstanding advancement or application innovation to improve policy, service delivery or public administration. 
  • Inspirational Leadership: Recognising individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, regardless of grade or role. 
  • Policy and Use of Evidence: Recognising excellence in policymaking. 
  • Project Delivery: Recognising outstanding contributions to the successful delivery of government projects. 
  • Public Service: Recognising exceptional service delivery. 
  • Resilience and Rapid Response: Recognising excellence in crisis management, contingency planning, or major incident response.
  • Rising Star: Recognising a civil servant who has made a significant impact within the first eight years of their Civil Service career. 
  • Science: Recognising the outstanding advancement or application of science to improve policy, service delivery or public administration. 

More details can be found on the Civil Service Awards website

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