Enter the 2025 Accolades

The Accolades are open to any team, group or organisation that provides social care or childcare, play and early years in Wales.

We’re looking for applications from every area – the voluntary, private, co-operative and public sectors. The care and support you provide can be large or small, and you can be working with children, families, adults or carers.

Our judges will be looking for projects, teams and organisations that show new ways of working and that make a positive difference to the lives of the people they support.

Sometimes people don’t realise how impressive their work is, so if you know a project, team or organisation that’s eligible, encourage them to enter.

To enter your project, team or organisation, all you have to do is:

• follow the link to the Microsoft Form for the category you’re entering below
• read this guide
• read the entry rules and the terms and conditions
• fill out the entry form
• submit your completed form by 5pm on 1 November 2024.

Choose the form for the category you want to enter:

• building bright futures for children and families
• developing and inspiring the workforce
• working in partnership
• working to the principles of strengths-based practice

The judging takes place in three parts:

1. Our panel of judges will score all the entries and meet to agree a shortlist of the highest scoring entries.

1. The judges will visit your project either virtually or in person between mid-January and mid-February

1. The judges will then meet to choose the finalists and winner of each category.

The winners will be announced at the Accolades ceremony on 1 May 2025.

The judges may move your entry to a different category if they feel it’s appropriate.

The entry rules for groups, teams and organisations are:

General

• entry is free
• the Accolades are open to teams, projects and organisations from the social care and childcare, play and early years sectors
• your team, project or organisation must be based and work in Wales
• some of the work you talk about in your entry must have taken place since November 2023
• we won’t accept any nominations after the closing date and time (5pm on Friday, 1 November 2025).

Your entry

• you must answer every question on the entry form
• you must stick to the word limits – the judges won’t look at entries that go over the word limits
• the judges will only look at the information in the entry form and won’t look at extra material, such as photos or videos
• you must give us contact details for someone in your team, project or organisation so we can get in touch with you
• you must make sure you’re eligible to send us the entry on behalf of your team, project or organisation
• you should refer to the standards of behaviour and practice expected of workers in the social care and childcare, play and early years sectors in your entry
• make sure you tell us how some or all the work you refer to in your application is new and makes a positive difference to the lives of the people you support
• we may use the information in your entry form to promote the Accolades
• we’ll let you know the outcome of your entry once the judges have made a decision
• we can’t return your entry from.

You should make sure you’ve read and understood the terms and conditions before you send us your completed entry:

Publicity

Your team, group or organisation must agree that we can use the information you give us on your entry form to:

• promote and publicise the Accolades

• share notable practice and help others learn in the social care and childcare, play and early years sectors.

We’ll make a short film of all the finalists’ projects, which will be shown at the awards ceremony.

Filming is likely to take place in February and March 2025 and all the finalists will need to make sure they’re available for filming. We’ll send the finalists more information about the filming in January 2025.

All the finalists could receive publicity in the media in Wales.

Judging

Our judging panel will choose the finalists and winners. There’ll only be one winner in each category.

The members of the judging panel mustn’t have any connection to the projects entered for the Accolades.

The judges’ decision will be final and we won’t enter into correspondence about their decision.

Shortlisted projects must be available to meet with our judges between mid-January and mid-February 2025.

The ceremony and awards

We’ll award a trophy to the winner of each category and a certificate to all the finalists. There’ll be no cash awards or equivalent.

All the finalists will be invited to attend the Accolades awards ceremony, which will take place in Cardiff on 1 May 2025. If a finalist can’t attend the ceremony, they’ll need to let us know beforehand and tell us who’ll accept the award or certificate on their behalf.

Finalists will be told how many places they have at the awards ceremony. Anyone attending the ceremony will have to pay their own travel and accommodation fees.

If we find out one of the finalists has broken the rules – before or after an Accolade is presented – the judges may disqualify them. If this happens, the trophy and/or certificate must be sent back to us right away.

• Closing date for entries: 5pm, 1 November 2025 (we won’t accept entries after the closing date)
• Shortlisted entries told: by mid-January 2025
• Judges’ meetings with shortlisted projects: mid-January to mid-February 2025
• Finalists announced: February 2025
• Awards ceremony: 1 May 2025