The Big Society
Awards were set up by the Prime Minister in November 2010. The
aim is to acknowledge individuals and organisations across the UK
that demonstrates the Big Society in their work or activities. In
so doing, the aim is also to galvanise others to follow in their
footsteps.
“This is a huge and very unexpected
honour. It’s a fantastic accolade not only for us, but also for the
amazing people and organisations who have joined us on our journey,
generously giving their time, skills and experience. If everybody
makes just one small change the cumulative impact would be
phenomenal. We hope that our story will encourage you to believe
that you too can make a positive difference and to start taking
action today to make it happen.” (Melanie Bryan, WhyNotChange,
Wigan).
The award focuses upon three specific
areas:
- Promoting social action – people being, and being encouraged to
be, be more involved in their communities through giving time,
money and other resources.
- Empowering communities – local people taking control of how
things are done in their area and being helped to do this by local
government and others.
- Opening up public services – public sector organisations and
individuals demonstrating innovative ways of delivering public
services and charities, social enterprises and private companies
showing new ways of delivering public services.
Nominations come in from the general public
after which there follows a process of scoring and short-listing by
civil servants and a further short-listing by a Panel of Ministers
and independent figures acknowledged in the civil society field
nationally. This Panel makes recommendations to the Prime Minister
who makes the final decisions about who to make the award to.
Twelve winners are decided each quarter and then announced once a
week throughout the year.
The Award itself has several aspects to it.
The winners each receive:
- a plaque;
- a signed certificate from the Prime Minister;
- copies of the electronic awards logos to use on their websites
and publicity materials;
- an invitation to a twice yearly reception at No.10 Downing
Street;
- a press release that appears on the No.10 website and that the
No.10 staff then circulate to the local and regional press in the
winner’s home area.
To find out further details on nomination
forms, deadlines and the assessment process, please go to the
Big Society Awards
page on the No.10 website.