2023 Accolades

The Accolades are awards that recognise, celebrate and share notable work in social care and childcare, play and early years in Wales.

The awards recognise the work of groups, teams and organisations, as well as workers from across the public, private, voluntary and co-operative sectors in Wales.

Entries and nominations for the 2023 Accolades have now closed and we're no longer accepting entries or nominations.

The 2023 Accolades have five categories:

• three categories for teams, groups and organisations
• two categories for workers.

Categories for teams, groups and organisations

In each category, our judges will be looking for evidence of work that’s new and makes a real positive difference to the lives of the people they support.

Building bright futures for children and families

Sponsored by Blake Morgan

This category is for organisations, settings or projects working with children, young people, families and their carers to help them achieve what matters to them.

Entries could come from residential social care settings, community-based or statutory services; for example those supporting young people who’ve recently left care, residential homes, fostering or adoption services, or youth work. Or it could be an early years or childcare setting that gives an excellent start for the children it supports.

Looking after and improving workforce well-being

Sponsored by Data Cymru

The pandemic’s challenges and the toll it took on those working in the care sector has shown how important it is to help workers stay well, physically and mentally.

In this category, we’re looking for excellent examples of:

• how employers have supported staff since the pandemic
• the longer-term steps employers are taking to look after and improve their workers’ well-being.

These steps could include introducing new ways to do things that show how staff are valued and supported, such as changing the way they work and offering specialist help when they need it. This category is open to employers or teams providing social care, early years or childcare in Wales.

Supporting unpaid carers

Sponsored by Life Sciences Hub Wales

In this category, we’re looking for teams or groups of workers who support unpaid carers, which could involve:

• making sure they’re not disadvantaged or discriminated against because of their caring role
• helping carers and their families find out what really matters to them and how they can achieve it
• arranging short breaks
• training to help carers learn new skills
• help with technology
• giving information and advice, and access to resources.

This support could come from social workers, social care workers or other practitioners.

Categories for individual care workers

In each category, our judges will be looking for exceptional care workers who go above and beyond the usual day-to-day requirements of their role and who help people achieve what really matters to them.

Effective leadership award

We’re looking for people to nominate outstanding leaders in social care and early years and childcare who’ve:

• shown compassion in the way they manage staff or work with colleagues
• helped organisations or teams achieve excellent outcomes for children and people who get care and support.

The leaders don’t have to be in senior positions, and could be individuals or teams. They can be at any level in the public, private or voluntary sectors.

The important thing is that they’ve shown outstanding leadership.

WeCare Wales award

Sponsored by WeCare Wales

We’re looking for people to nominate outstanding workers involved in social care or early years and childcare, who’ve made a hugely positive difference to people’s lives.

The workers can be from any role in the public, private or voluntary sectors, including volunteers. They can also be apprentices or people studying for qualifications while they work.

Blake Morgan

Sponsor of ‘Building bright futures for children and families’.

Blake Morgan formed in 2014 from the merger of Blake Lapthorn and Morgan Cole LLP. It offers a range of 70 legal services for commercial and private clients across many sectors, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Blake Morgan has 126 partners, 400 lawyers and more than 1,000 staff in six locations across the UK and has a strong commitment to making a difference.

Data Cymru

Sponsor of ‘Looking after and improving workforce well-being’.

Data Cymru offers a range of specialist support designed to help people find and use data effectively. This includes helping to source, collect, or collate data, data analysis, effective data presentation and much more. Its strategic focus is: “putting data and intelligence at the heart of public service delivery”.

Data Cymru plays a central role in ensuring that data meets the needs of its audience by representing the views of local government in Wales around issues such as the Census, and population and migration data. It also holds a wealth of data available in maps, tables and reports in its national system Info Base Cymru.

Life Sciences Hub Wales

Sponsor of 'Supporting unpaid carers'.

Life Sciences Hub Wales acts as a catalyst to drive innovation and collaboration between industry, health, social care and academia – helping make Wales the place of choice for health, care and well-being innovation.

It accelerates the development and adoption of innovative solutions to support Wales’s health and social care needs, and partners with industry to advance economic development across the life sciences sector in Wales, driving business growth and creating jobs.

The team provides bespoke innovation support, from supporting clinicians with an innovative product or service, to facilitating partnerships with multinational life sciences organisations.

It also project manages the evaluation and adoption of innovation, knowledge sharing, offers funding guidance and signposting, and encourages engagement between industry, health and social care.

WeCare Wales

Sponsor of the 'WeCare Wales award'.

WeCare Wales is a major bilingual, multi-media initiative developed by Social Care Wales, working with a range of national and local organisations involved in different aspects of social care, early years and childcare.

It aims to raise awareness and understanding of social care, early years and childcare and attract more people with the right skills and values to work in caring roles with children and adults.

WeCare Wales aims to show the variety of roles and career progression opportunities available. By using real care workers, it focuses on the challenges they face, as well as what makes their work rewarding and worthwhile.

The 2023 Accolades awards ceremony will be held at City Hall in Cardiff from midday to 4pm on 27 April 2023.

We’ll update this page with more information about it nearer the time.

If you have a question or can’t find what you’re looking for, get in touch with us.