New award to recognise exceptional practice in adult social care workforce

Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care Deborah Sturdy has announced an adult social care award to bring recognition to social care workers, in line with NHS workforce awards.

The awards will mirror the Chief Nursing Officer Ruth May’s awards for the NHS and aim to celebrate nurses and care workers in adult social care who go above and beyond their everyday roles to provide excellent care, leadership and inspiration.

Presented as gold and silver awards, they represent an important step towards bringing recognition in line with the NHS workforce and recognise the extraordinary commitment of the adult social care workforce.

Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care Professor Deborah Study said the pandemic has “shone a light” on the social care workforce.

“The social care workforce more than ever continues to demonstrate unwavering compassion, professionalism and dedication. Not only during the pandemic but every year,” Sturdy said.

“These individual awards recognise exceptional practice and care and rightly give recognition, acknowledgement and appreciation that those individuals deserve.”

The awards come at an important time, the Department of Health says, in celebrating the wider care workforce, as well as building on the system-wide collaboration across health and social care seen during the pandemic.

This new award is the first of its kind for adult social care and is open to the workforce from all settings and parts of the sector.

The awards will be on an application basis and awarded throughout the year.

Nominations will be considered by a panel of NHS and adult social care chief nursing officers and adult social care sector representatives. The Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care aims to present the first award later this year.


The gold award will recognise outstanding achievements and performance demonstrated by a nurse or social care worker in their area of practice. This may be clinical practice, education, research or leadership. The award recognises the exceptional contribution by an individual with a distinguished career in nursing or social care.

The silver award recognises performance that goes above and beyond the expectations of the everyday role that the nurse or social care worker is expected to perform, and could be awarded to either an individual or a team.

The awards will not be limited to registered nurses and will be extended to include all carers across all care settings, not only care homes.