This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

The communications function is more integral to what councils do than ever. There is increasing need to influence behaviour in relation to, for example, recycling, transport, looking out for older neighbours, or reinforcing public health messaging. And there is the importance of building trust in the difficult decisions councils have to take in these challenging times.

Campaigns can make a significant contribution to achieving these objectives, and this award is designed to showcase councils’ expertise in this area.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• The objectives the campaign was intended to achieve;
• A summary of the campaign strategy, including target audiences, media, image, timing and budget etc;
• The extent to which the campaign achieved the objectives including, for example securing behavioural changes;
• The evidence base used to inform the need for and contents of the campaign and measure its impact;
• The extent to which partner organisations were involved in the campaign

Award entries will be judged on:

• The quality of the campaign, including design, format, delivery and evaluation
• The impact of the campaign and the extent to which it achieved the council’s objectives
• How the campaign contributed to the council’s wider objectives and strategy.

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council- owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

Children’s services are very much under pressure, and ever more so in the face of a cost of living crisis, adding to the numbers of potentially vulnerable children. There is an imperative to protect vulnerable children, the importance of early intervention and the changing relationship with schools – all under an intense media and now social spotlight. This award is intended to recognise the success of those councils that adopt a genuinely strategic approach to this vital service area in the face of extraordinary challenges.

Entries can focus either on a specific aspect of the council’s work on children’s services or the entirety of its work on children’s services.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• The council’s approach to meeting the needs of, for instance:
  - children who need help and protection, including early help
  - children looked after, including adoption, fostering and the use of residential care
  - young people leaving care or preparing to leave care
• The council’s approach to identifying and supporting new areas of need;
• The council’s main achievements (supported by evidence), with a particular focus on tangible improvements in the lives of children and young people;
• The steps you took to secure those achievements and the most important drivers of change;
• Any innovative approaches you have adopted, including in their relationship with schools.

Award entries will be judged on:

• The scale of the council’s ambition in this area and the extent to which it is being achieved;
• The extent to which you have adopted a strategic approach to children’s services, including early intervention;
• The quality of your relationship with schools, the health service and other key agencies;
• The impact of your service on the lives of children and young people.
  

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector or public sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

Councils are uniquely placed to effect change in response to the climate crisis. This award is intended to mark excellence in any aspect of a council’s work in addressing the carbon footprint of the council, its services and its broader local area.

Entries may include work to capture climate benefits from changed behaviours or work with local businesses and communities to address the climate crisis, to both enable economic growth and secure environmental improvements. Entries will be judged on the innovation of their submissions, the extent to which it has delivered measurable change, the quality of evidence of support from local communities, and the ability for other councils to replicate the work.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• A full description of the project and its aims;
• A detailed explanation of how it was funded and where the expertise for it came from;
• Any evidence of how the council has worked or engaged with, or influenced the behaviour of local people;
• Links between policy on climate change and other objectives including economic and social wellbeing;
• Evidence that the project has met its goals.

Award entries will be judged upon:

• The extent to which the council’s work was an innovative response to a significant concern and potentially can be replicated in other areas;
• The quality of the outcomes obtained from the project, for instance in improved or more efficient services, or measurable reductions in local carbon emissions;
• Links between climate response and other policy areas including economic wellbeing and regeneration;
• Evidence of buy-in to the project or its goals from members of the local community or external organisations.
  

LGC’s Council of the Year will be the council which has the most learning and inspiration to offer the rest of local government. The winner should demonstrate underlying sustained strong performance, innovation and excellent leadership across the broad spectrum of its work.

Judges will be asked to disregard any advantages a council has based on its size or location, and they will not award Council of the Year on the basis of the scale of the Covid challenge a council has faced. The winner will be chosen on the basis of the delivery of strong outcomes, the quality of the council’s community leadership, and the evidence that the council is doing the best for its area, all in response to the specific challenge the council has faced in all areas of its work.

Judges will also look for qualities including resilience, compassion, inclusion and adaptability, as well as the quality of the council’s cooperation with partners.

This award is open to a council or, in exceptional circumstances, a partnership of councils – for instance when two councils share the same officer leadership.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• Summarising your council’s vision, its current objectives, the steps it is currently taking to achieving those objectives and your success in doing so, within the relevant timescale;
• Specific evidence of the quality of the council’s performance during the period in question, including performance of and outcomes achieved by the major services; community leadership and collaboration;
• Details of your local pandemic response and how you have supported your local community in a way which other councils can learn from;
• What makes your council distinctive;
• What you think makes your council excel and what you feel other councils could learn from what you have done;
• The council’s contribution to sector-led improvement.

Award entries will be judged on:

• The scale and underlying sustainability of the council’s achievements and the quality of the evidence to substantiate them;
• The quality of the council’s pandemic response, with evidence of strong place leadership, relatively successful outcomes, adaptability, innovation and successful work with partners;
• The boldness and likely deliverability of the council’s vision;
• The underlying success of the council in combining significant public service improvement and reform with budget cuts and efficiency savings;
• The contribution of the political and managerial leadership, partnership working and community engagement;
• The resilience of the council’s work in difficult times in areas including: economic growth, housing, the ageing society, health inequalities and children’s services;
• The council’s contribution to the wider local government sector.
  

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

Many councils are seeking to establish a new relationship with local people and local communities. Community involvement and engagement is increasingly important as a way of shaping council thinking, contributing to service design and improvement and to responding to continuing resource pressures. It may also involve direct community involvement in service delivery. This award is intended to showcase the whole range of community involvement.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• Summarising the project concerned and the nature of the community involvement;
• Setting out the aims of the project and the extent to which they have been achieved within the relevant timescale;
• How community engagement contributes to the council’s wider objectives and strategy;
• The main drivers of success and the approach the council has taken.

Award entries will be judged on:

• Evidence of community satisfaction with the process and achievement of the council’s objectives;
• The depth and extent of community involvement, in particular in getting people involved who would not otherwise have done so;
• The extent to which the involvement has influenced service quality and/or the way in which the council works;
• The contribution to the council’s wider objectives;
• The sustainability of the approach.
  

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

This award will go to the council that can best show how its use of digital technology is significantly improving outcomes for its residents and/or place. It is not primarily for a council that can show it has systematically transformed its approach to technology or has devised as solution for a specific area of its work, but it is for a council that can demonstrate how its digital acumen is transforming its local area, for instance with regards to the effectiveness of key services and how they support residents. Among the attributes you may seek to showcase in your entry are the benefits of data sharing; how your organisation is ensuring it supports people before they fall into crisis; and how ground-breaking collaboration between local partners has had a significant impact on your local population.

This award is designed to recognise vision and farsightedness but may also be suitable for councils which have used their existing digital technology approach in a new or innovative way in their pandemic response.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• A description of your digital vision;
• An account of how you have embedded the use of technology across the authority;
• An assessment of how this technology has helped achieve your organisational vision and has improved outcomes, for instance in several priority services or across your place as a whole;
• If applicable, the ways in which the embedded use of technology within the organisation has resulted in new or innovative solutions or contributed to positive outcomes in the pandemic response;
• A detailed explanation of how collaborators were involved in the transformation process;
• A description of how the role of digital in creating real impact was realised across the authority and enabled your organisation’s vision or strategy.

Award entries will be judged upon:

• First and foremost, evidence that digital has created a tangible business change to facilitate improved outcomes, for instance for service users, staff, a directorate in the council or your place as a whole;
• Evidence senior managers have a clear understanding of the role digital plays in the future delivery of their services and the function of their directorate as well as the future of council which is well-articulated and understood across the organisation;
• The level of innovation and ambition in using technology to reform ways of working across a range of services;
• Evidence of how digital was used to drive reforms and initiatives;
• Examples where your technology agenda can be linked to improved outcomes for service users, staff and better collaboration between stakeholders.
  

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

This award recognises strong performance by a council, with a primary focus on the relevant timescale, in developing a diverse and inclusive culture that permeates the council itself and its workforce and/or the broader local area.

The entry could demonstrate the council’s attempts to foster a more diverse and inclusive workplace for all employees, and members - promoting and progressing diversity and inclusion values from within - and describe how this is helping to attract and retain talent. It could include internal council initiatives, customer/service user-facing work, or work to promote a wide range of careers on the council to appeal to different people.

The entry could alternatively focus more on the broader local area, highlighting initiatives driven by the council to foster diversity and help facilitate inclusion across the local community. It could include how the council has worked with other business and other local organisations to improve opportunity, participation and engagement.

Criteria

Judges will be looking for evidence of at least three of the following:

• Inclusive leadership that filters down to all levels and the promotion of positive role models within or beyond the council;
• Diversity and inclusion focus in areas such as staff engagement, training, employee networks, and the work that has taken place to create a culture that fosters positive change within and beyond the organisation;
• Evidence of positive outcomes from specific initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion within the council or the wider local area.
• Evidence of actions and activities taken to create and deliver inclusive recruitment processes.
• Boldness in setting benchmarks for diversity and inclusion, and measurable progress towards them;
• Evidence that diversity and inclusion are central to all of the council’s work, including its partnerships and work with service users.
  

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

Councils have a major role in supporting their local economy, both in their own right and as partners alongside other local bodies, including local enterprise partnerships and (in some cases) as members of combined authorities, as well as business of course.

This award is intended to highlight the key role that councils play in supporting their local economy. It is open to projects that secure economic growth locally or, equally important at this present time, to projects that help support or revive existing employers, businesses or sectors by reducing the impact of economic turbulence and Covid upon them. It is also open to projects intended to bring about long-term economic recovery.

Among the support in question could be pandemic response measures, infrastructure, regulatory work, their role as employers and purchasers of services, as well as countless other areas.

Criteria

Award entries will be judged on:

• The nature of the council’s ambition and the steps it has put in place to achieve it;
• Evidence of the impact of the council’s activities on the economy/sector in question;
• The quality of the council’s relationship with business and its partners and impact of those relationships on action support the economy in its area;
• The quality of the council’s use of business intelligence;
• The relationship between the council’s growth ambitions and the council’s wider strategic objectives;
• Evidence of the responsiveness of the council as whole to the needs of business.
  

Submissions should focus on:

• The nature of the council’s ambition and the steps it has put in place to achieve it;
• Evidence of the impact of the council’s activities on the economy/sector in question;
• The quality of the council’s relationship with business and its partners and impact of those relationships on action support the economy in its area;
• The quality of the council’s use of business intelligence;
ntially including businesses, sectors, a LEP or combined authority;
• The relationship between the council’s growth ambitions and the council’s wider strategic objectives;
• The council’s use of business intelligence/data to inform its activities;
• Evidence of the responsiveness of the council as whole to the needs of business.
• The key programmes and initiatives the council is pursuing;
• Summarising the council’s ambitions for the future of its economy/the sector in question and its priorities for achieving that ambition.

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

This award is intended to mark innovation and excellence in any aspect of a council’s work in environmental services, including sustainability, energy, recycling, refuse collection and street cleaning.

Entries will be judged on the innovation of their submissions and the extent to which it is demonstrated the council’s work has improved the environment in their area and/or the efficiency of service delivery.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• A full description of the project and its aims;
• A detailed explanation of costs, how it was funded and where the expertise for it came from;
• The impact of the council’s work on the lives of local people, for instance by showing how their concerns led to a positive response or community engagement impacted upon it;
• Any links between policy on the environment and other objectives including economic growth and net zero;
• Examples of resilience in the face of considerable challenges;
• Evidence that the project has met its goals.

Award entries will be judged upon:

• The extent to which the council’s work was an innovative response to a significant concern and potentially can be replicated in other areas;
• The quality of the outcomes obtained from the project, for instance in improved or more efficient services, or with regards to the resilience of services during the pandemic;
• Links between environmental sustainability and other policy areas including economic growth;
• Evidence of buy-in to the project or its goals from members of the local community or external organisations.
  

Please note the criteria for this award was updated on 21/10/2022.

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

This award is for councils that have stimulated and supported the development of bold new solutions and services in the market through challenge-led commissioning or procurement. Public procurement has a reputation for being a blocker to innovation, but more and more councils are finding it a powerful tool to deliver strategic objectives including making the area they serve more prosperous, ‘liveable’ and resilient in the face of likely social, economic, demographic, political or environmental trends.

The Future Places Award recognises councils which are using their spending power to engage creatively with innovative suppliers to accelerate decarbonisation and climate resilience, enable greater inclusion, and harness digital technologies. 

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• A clear view of the challenge the council was seeking to tackle;
• How the council used procurement or commissioning to engage the market and stimulate new solutions to the challenge;
• Demonstrating any contribution to Net Zero carbon ambitions;
• Contribution towards economic success/prosperity
• Explaining how the council collaborated with local technology companies and providers.

Award entries will be judged upon:

• The levels of creativity and ambition demonstrated;
• The clarity of the approach showing how the council used procurement / commissioning tools to overcoming the challenge in question;
• The potential for replication elsewhere – both of the approach and solution(s); 
• The depth of partnership working exhibited and collaboration with innovative suppliers;
• Evidence that the work in question will make positive contributions in areas such as carbon reduction, job creation and the overall success of UK businesses.
  

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

With financial challenges and a growing population of older people, and people with disabilities, adult social care was under severe pressure before the Covid-19 pandemic and it is under even greater now. This award recognises how councils have worked to improve or maintain services amid these pressures.

It seeks to recognise innovative projects likely to facilitate integration between health and social care, boost personalisation, and improve collaboration between the public, private and voluntary sectors to improve delivery. This award is intended to recognise and promote best practice in this critically important area either related to or unrelated to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• The specific local challenges you are seeking to address, the objectives you have set in response to those challenges and the steps you have taken to achieve them;
• The extent to which your council is playing a system leadership role, potentially including its engagement through an integrated care system, or with the remaining sustainability and transformation partnerships, the Health and Wellbeing Board, the Clinical Commissioning Group(s) and health and care providers;
• How your approach relates to the national context in relation to integration of health and social care and the personalisation agenda;
• The milestones you have set – particularly within the relevant timescale – and the extent to which you have achieved them.

Award entries will be judged on:

• The ambition and creativity of your approach;
• The impact of your approach, particularly in relation to evidenced benefits for citizens/ service users and patients, and resource implications;
• The extent to which you have adopted a whole-systems approach;
• The sustainability of the changes you have introduced.
  

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

Many parts of the country are facing major housing problems. While a soaring market has left property beyond the reach of many potential buyers, there is a major undersupply of rented accommodation, and often housing can be of a poor quality. Meanwhile, the pandemic has demonstrated the scale of the homelessness problem and inequalities in housing provision.

This award is for the local authorities that have done most to devise imaginative solutions to ease such problems, be they in social housing, the private rental sector, in accelerated house building or in enabling home ownership, or in tackling homelessness. It is open to projects that formed part of the pandemic response as well as to those entirely separate to it.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• A full description of the project and the challenge or opportunity it is intended to address;
• A description of how it has been resourced and the number of staff involved in delivering it;
• Details of how the council has worked with external organisations to bring about progress, including social landlords, the construction industry, landowners and the financial services industry; as well as details of how it has worked with the individuals in question;
• Evidence that the scheme in question has been successful.

Award entries will be judged upon:

• The level of innovation shown in overcoming the barriers to progress and improving access to housing, or to the problem being tackled;
• The extent to which the evidence shows that projects have met the challenge in question;
• The entrant’s ability to work with other organisations and members of the public to provide solutions;
• The extent to which the project provided a unique local solution to an issue facing that area.
  

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

Councils have a long track record of innovation, but the current combination of cuts in expenditure, service pressures and the impact of the pandemic mean that innovation is more important than ever.

This award is intended to celebrate councils which have used innovation to re-think services in order to achieve better outcomes for citizens and communities either at less cost, to improve outcomes or delivery, or in order to continue delivery of service during the pandemic. The project should centre on the relevant timescale.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• The nature of the policy or service they consider to be innovative;
• The process by which the policy or service was developed or introduced, including the involvement of service users, business and frontline staff;
• What makes it genuinely innovative;
• Evidence of outcomes, for instance how services have been improved, made more viable or resilient, and/or costs reduced;
• What learning there is from the innovation.

Award entries will be judged on:

• The extent to which the policy or service design is genuinely innovative;
• The scale of the outcomes brought about by the project in question;
• The degree of innovation in the process by which the policy or service was developed and implemented;
• The extent to which the innovation helped the council to achieve its intended objective;
• The extent to which the council has created a wider culture of innovation.
  

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

The team in question should have more than 20 members

Teams are critically important to the effective working of local government, whether the team is a management team, a frontline service team or a central services team. This award is intended to showcase the ingredients that make council teams effective and contribute to areas such as local democracy, local service delivery and the pandemic response. Entries may focus on the team’s innovation, resilience, inclusivity and, of course, results.

Criteria

Award entries will be judged on:

• The team’s performance within the relevant timescale and in particular evidence showing the extent to which it achieved its objectives and contributed to the council’s wider objectives;
• The team’s responsiveness to changing customer needs, evidence on its performance and the council’s strategic objectives;
• Its demonstrable commitment to developing effective team working and the wider challenge it has faced.
  

Submissions should focus on:

Please state clearly the name of your team and the number of members it had at the time of the award submission at the top of your entry; (Should be 21 or more members within the team)

• The team’s performance within the relevant timescale and in particular evidence showing the extent to which it achieved its objectives and contributed to the council’s wider objectives;
• The team’s responsiveness to changing customer needs, evidence on its performance and the council’s strategic objectives;
• How the objectives of your team are set, how you measure the extent to which you have achieved those objectives and what you do with the results of that measurement;
Its demonstrable commitment to developing effective team working and the wider challenge it has faced.
• How the team contributes to the council’s wider objectives
• How you develop effective team working.

Award entries will be judged on:

• The team’s performance within the relevant timescale and in particular evidence showing the extent to which it achieved its objectives and contributed to the council’s wider objectives;
• The team’s responsiveness to changing customer needs, evidence on its performance and the council’s strategic objectives;
• Its demonstrable commitment to developing effective team working and the wider challenge it has faced.
  

This award is open to a single council or in exceptional circumstances, such as where two or more councils share a management, a partnership of councils.

This award recognises the improvement journey of councils which have previously struggled or performed sub-optimally. The journeys such councils follow are exceptionally difficult, and the leadership skills required to accomplish them are exceptionally demanding. The purpose of this award is to pay tribute to the leaders and broader teams that have turned around the performance of a place, and to recognise the fact that a council has ‘bounced back’.

There is scope for improvement in all councils. In a few places there is a pressing need for significant improvement. A central plank in local government’s case for reduced regulation and intervention by central government is its capacity for and commitment to self-improvement. This is more important than ever given the current combination of reduced resources and increased service pressures. This award is intended to showcase local government’s commitment to improvement and to highlight successes in this important area.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• The performance challenges your council faced – evidenced by data;
• The goals you set, focusing in particular on milestones for 2021 which demonstrate that you are achieving them;
• Explaining the management skills and input of the wider council team and councillors to make the improvement;
• The impact of the improvement process with a particular focus on outcomes for citizens and resource implications;
• The approach adopted to leading and managing the improvement process, including stakeholder engagement;
• The key drivers which enabled you to deliver the improvement you have achieved;
• The extent to which the council has benefitted from and participated in sector-led improvement;
• Lessons for other councils from the council’s improvement.

Award entries will be judged on:

• The ambition of the council’s improvement objectives;
• The extent to which the improvement programme achieved its goals and the quality of the evidence substantiating those achievements;
• The quality of system leadership and stakeholder engagement deployed to achieve the improvements;
• The council’s capacity for and commitment to continued improvement;
• The council’s contribution to sector-led improvement.
  

This special award for 2022 aims to recognise an exceptional individual in local government who embodies the qualities of resilience, compassion, flexibility, innovation and creativity to cope with adversity. The recipient may have developed innovative solutions to enable their council and its partners to continue providing critical services during the huge challenges presented by the pandemic.

Anyone working in local government at any level is eligible to apply. This is not a lifetime achievement award – it is a reflection of the individual’s contribution predominantly during the period in question. The individual may have performed outstandingly in the pandemic response, or in a largely unrelated area of the council’s work.

The individual needs to still be working in local government at the time of the announcement of the Awards shortlist and have no plans or expectation to not be working in local government at the time of the Awards ceremony.

We welcome entries from candidates themselves or nominations from those who wish to highlight an individual they believe merits this recognition.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• The individual’s job title, with an explanation of their remit and expected responsibilities;
• A description of the exceptional challenges they have faced in the period in question;
• An explanation of why their work was out of the ordinary, for instance why what they did was innovative, their ability to work alongside other people including external partners and the level of dedication and resilience that they displayed;
• Evidence of the success of their work in terms of goals accomplished and any data confirming this;

Award entries will be judged upon

• The scale of the qualities demonstrated by the individual – such as innovation, resilience, compassion, flexibility and creativity, as well as evidence of the impact it has had;
• The extent to which their work can inspire and influence the rest of local government;
• The individual’s ability to network, influence, share knowledge and offer support across the system, potentially including with partner organisations, councillors and at all levels of the council;
• The extent of their commitment to bring about improvement.
  

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

The social determinants of health and the impact of health inequalities have both attained significant prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic and the importance of public health has never been higher on the public agenda.

Local government’s role in public health presents a major opportunity for councils and their partners to protect and improve the health and wellbeing of their local communities, and – in these difficult times – to make local populations less at risk of Covid-19.

Entries are likely to focus on the development of evidence-based solutions to reduce health inequalities, the impact of the work in question such as better health and wellbeing, and (potentially) how the totality of the council’s work is helping to achieve the objectives in question. And it could reflect the council’s work against Covid. This award is intended to recognise the councils that are making the most of their role in public health.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• Setting out the public health priorities the council has adopted and the reasons for doing so;
• How you are using evidence to develop effective strategies;
• Evidence of strong performance with regards to the strategies in question;
• They may potentially set out how public health is being integrated across the council and ow the work is coordinated with that of partner organisations;

Award entries will be judged on:

• The boldness and vision behind the council’s strategies;
• Evidence showing the council’s work is having an impact on broader population health or on specific public health objectives;
• The extent to which you have implemented evidence-based solutions to public health problems;
• How cross-departmental and partnership working is having an impact;
• How you are overcoming barriers to implementation.
  

This award is open to any partnership featuring one or more councils and alongside one or more private or voluntary sector partners. It could potentially additionally include a partner from another part of the public sector, although it is the public/private or public/voluntary partnership which is the key element.

Councils no longer work in isolation. Increasingly they work with other councils, public sector bodies, private firms or voluntary sector organisations to devise more seamless, more efficient and integrated services.

This award is intended to showcase the whole range of partnership working. Entries should demonstrate that the partnership has brought about service improvements and/or improved efficiency, or brought about the best outcome possible amid the difficulties of the pandemic.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• Please give details of what which bodies are involved in the partnership, what they do, and what services or areas of work are covered by the partnership in question;
• Details of the scale of the partnership, for instance in number of people involved and financial value of the work it undertakes;
• A summary of governance and financial arrangements (although judges are asked to note that commercial confidentiality may mean there are legitimate limits to the information available);
• The objectives of the partnership;
• Evidence of how these objectives have been achieved;
• Evidence of a comprehensive buy-in from the partners;
• Evidence of the success of the partnership, especially in terms of measurable outcomes/ improvements to services, reduced costs and impact on residents.

Award entries will be judged on:

• Evidence that partnerships have the potential to be long-lasting, with the partnership structured to tackle whatever challenges participants face;
• The extent to which the evidence shows the partnership is improving services and/or reducing costs;
• The extent to which the partnership has added real value to the outcomes for local communities;
• The innovative nature of both the partnership itself and the work it is undertaking. 

This award is open to any partnership featuring two or more public sector bodies, at least one of which is a council. Eligible partners can be from any part of the public sector, including NHS bodies, police, agencies or central government, as well as other councils.

Councils no longer work in isolation. Increasingly they work with other councils, public sector bodies, private firms or voluntary sector organisations to devise more seamless, more efficient and integrated services.

This award is intended to showcase the whole range of partnership working. Entries should demonstrate that the partnership has brought about service improvements and/or improved efficiency, or brought about the best outcome possible.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• Please give details of what which bodies are involved in the partnership, what they do, and what services or areas of work are covered by the partnership in question;
• Details of the scale of the partnership, for instance in number of people involved and financial value of the work it undertakes; • A summary of governance and financial arrangements;
• The objectives of the partnership;
• Evidence of how these objectives have been achieved;
• Evidence of a comprehensive buy-in from the partners;
• Evidence of the success of the partnership, especially in terms of measurable outcomes/ improvements to services, reduced costs and impact on residents.

Award entries will be judged on:

• Evidence that partnerships have the potential to be long-lasting, with the partnership structured to tackle whatever challenges participants face;
• The extent to which the evidence shows the partnership is improving services and/or reducing costs;
• The extent to which the partnership has added real value to the outcomes for local communities;
• The innovative nature of both the partnership itself and the work it is undertaking.
  

The effectiveness of councils depends to a significant extent on the quality of their political and managerial leadership. Tomorrow’s chief executives and directors are almost certainly working in councils today in both service areas and corporate roles. The part they are playing now in helping councils to respond to continued budget pressures, developing new relationships with communities and tackling issues such as the housing need, the ageing population and economic growth, alongside the national pandemic response, will help to prepare them for the challenges of tomorrow.

Local government needs to get better at spotting and developing the managerial leaders of tomorrow. This award is designed to help the sector to do just that. It is intended to highlight local government’s exceptional young officers and professionals who are currently not in corporate management team roles. They are likely to be heads of service or team leaders. They are making change happen, taking difficult decisions and asking important questions – while at the same time preparing to deliver excellent local government in the future.

The award recognises sustained contribution which may or may not include elements of resilience and pandemic response.

The individual needs to still be working in local government at the time of the announcement of the Awards shortlist and have no plans or expectation to not be working in local government at the time of the Awards ceremony.

Criteria

The judges will be looking for evidence of:

• Innovative work which has delivered demonstrable change;
• Examples of outstanding resilience in the face of challenges potentially including the pandemic;
• A first class understanding of the political process and ability to work effectively with councillors;
• Experience of networking at all levels;
• Sharing knowledge within the sector;
• A commitment to innovate and finding better ways of doing things.
  

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

The team in question should have 20 or fewer members.

Teams are critically important to the effective working of local government, whether the team is a management team, a frontline service team or a central services team. This award is intended to showcase the ingredients that make council teams effective and contribute to areas such as local democracy, local service delivery and the pandemic response. Entries may focus on the team’s innovation, resilience, inclusivity and, of course, results.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• Please state clearly the name of your team and the number of members it had at the time of the award submission at the top of your entry;
• A brief description of the role and membership of your team;
• Your team’s current objectives and achievements with a particular focus on the relevant timescale;
• How the objectives of your team are set, how you measure the extent to which you have achieved those objectives and what you do with the results of that measurement;
• Who the customers of your team are and how you ensure that you are responsive to their needs;
• How the team contributes to the council’s wider objectives;
• How you develop effective team working.

Please state clearly the name of your team and the number of members it had at the time of the award submission at the top of your entry; (Should be 20 or fewer members within the team)

Award entries will be judged on:

• The team’s performance within the relevant timescale and in particular evidence showing the extent to which it achieved its objectives and contributed to the council’s wider objectives;
• The team’s responsiveness to changing customer needs, evidence on its performance and the council’s strategic objectives;
• Its demonstrable commitment to developing effective team working and the wider challenge it has faced.
  

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself.

Technology has the potential to bring about a far more efficient use of resources, for instance by more easily directing service users to the support they need, or as a means of running services and/or the council’s operations during the course of the pandemic. It also has the potential to land public sector procurers with huge bills for projects that do not meet their goals.

This award will go to a council which has avoided the pitfalls to devise new systems that achieve objectives such as bringing about behaviour change, improving service delivery and/or making services more efficient.

Criteria

Submissions should focus on:

• A full description of the project and its aims;
• An explanation of the technology involved and what made its use in your authority innovative;
• A detailed explanation of how the project was funded and where the expertise for it came from, and the goals it was intended to achieve;
• How staff and users have engaged in using the technology, benefitted from it, or been involved in its design/implementation;
• Evidence that the project has achieved the goals in question.

Award entries will be judged upon:

• The level of innovation and ambition shown in devising technological improvements;
• The extent to which the evidence shows that projects have achieved the desired goals, especially with regards to the toughest ones;
• Evidence of the use of technology to drive change and innovation in service delivery;
• Entrants’ ability to work with other organisations and the quality of their work ensuring that partnerships continue to meet the needs of local communities in the long-term, rather than just to create short-term improvements;
• The scale of any behaviour change resulting from the new systems;
• The quality of user and staff engagement.