The Big Society Awards were set up by the Prime Minister in November 2010. The aim is to acknowledge individuals and organisations across the UKthat demonstrate 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.” (MelanieBryan, 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.