Our annual Barnardo's Excellence Awards are a fantastic opportunity to celebrate excellence and impact across our charity.
These Awards recognise colleagues who demonstrate excellence in their directorate and celebrate our dedicated volunteers and the inspiring children and young people we support.
Nominations
Winners for the Excellence Awards 2023 were announced at the awards ceremony on Thursday 7 December.
The next round of nominations will open Autumn 2024.
If you know a colleague or young person who has made an incredible difference, gone the extra mile and demonstrated our values, then you can nominate them for a Barnardo’s Excellence Award.
Volunteers are nominated separately through The Marsh Trust - one of volunteering partners. We celebrate their achievements, alongside our colleagues and children and young people, at the awards ceremony in December.
Award categories
Colleague awards
For the following awards, we are looking for colleagues that have shown a true difference and made a positive impact for the charity whilst demonstrating our core behaviours and values:
- Excellence in Barnardo's Trading companies
- Excellence in Business Services
- Excellence in Fundraising & Marketing, Strategy & External Affairs, and People & Culture
- Excellence in Children's Services Operations
- Excellence in Development and Innovation
In addition to directorate awards, we also celebrate our colleagues through:
- The Rising Star Award - This award acknowledges a colleague who is relatively early in their career and has already demonstrated excellence, as well as promise for the future.
- The Lifetime Achievement Award - This award recognises colleagues later on in their career who have served Barnardo’s for many years and have made outstanding contributions to advance the charity’s cause over the course of their time with us.
Children and young people awards
- The Act of Kindness Award - For a young person who is quiet on the face of it but goes out of their way to make others feel welcome, supported, and valued.
- The Personal Achievement Award - For a young person who has overcome personal difficulties, setbacks, or adversity.
- The Thomas Barnardo Award (Care experience award) - A special achievement award for a young person who lives or has previously lived in foster or residential care (which could include supported or semi-independent accommodation).
- Young Achiever for the Year - For outstanding achievement in education, sport, or the arts.
- Young Changemaker of the Year - For a young person who has spoken out on issues they care about and influenced change.
- Young Leader of the Year - For a young person who has demonstrated stand-out leadership skills within their peer group.
- Young Volunteer of the Year - For a young person who has shown exceptional commitment as a volunteer for Barnardo's.
The awards ceremony
Winners, selected by our judging panel, will be invited to our December celebration event which we will also be streaming for colleagues across Barnardo’s to tune into. Look out for an email or keep an eye on Workplace for a link to watch the ceremony.
Guidance
Read our FAQs for more information.