Enter the Accolades’ ‘Supporting unpaid carers’ category

Have you successfully and effectively supported unpaid carers over the last two years? If so, we want to hear from you.

The category is 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 residential or community-based, large or small. You can be working with children, adults or carers.

Our judges will be looking for projects that show new ways of working and makes a real 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 that’s eligible, encourage them to enter.

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

• download the application form for the category you’re entering below
• read the form and this guide
• read the entry rules and the terms and conditions
• fill out the entry form
• send your completed form to us at accolades@socialcare.wales by 5pm on 30 November 2022.

Only send us your completed entry form – the judges won’t look at extra materials such as photos or videos.

The judging takes place in two parts:

1. Our panel of judges will score all the entries and meet in December to agree a shortlist of the highest scoring entries
2. The judges may choose to meet with the shortlisted entries between 23 January and 10 February 2023. They will then choose the finalists and winners for each category.

We’ll let you know if your entry has been shortlisted in January 2023. If your entry is chosen as one of our finalists, we’ll let you know at the end of February 2023.

The winners will be announced at the Accolades ceremony in April 2023.

The entry rules for groups, teams and organisations are:

General

• Entry is free
• The Accolades are open to teams, groups or organisations from the social care and childcare, play and early years sectors
• Your team, group 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 2021
• We won’t accept any nominations received after the closing date and time (5pm on Wednesday, 30 November 2022)

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, group or organisation
• You must make sure you’re eligible to send us the entry on behalf of your team, group 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 by January 2023
• We can’t return your entry form.

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 March 2023 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 February 2023.

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 23 January and 10 February 2023.

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 be taking place in Cardiff in April 2023. 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, 30 November 2022 (we won’t accept entries after the closing date)
• Shortlisted entries told: by 12 January 2023
• Judges’ meetings with shortlisted projects: 23 January to 10 February 2023
• Finalists announced: 27 February 2023
• Awards ceremony: April 2023