Scottish Public Service Awards 2024

This is the eleventh year of the Scottish Public Service Awards (SPSA), which Holyrood Communications runs in partnership with the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government. 

Awards will be given across 11 categories at this year’s award ceremony in the Garden Lobby of the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday 10 December.

These remarkable awards have been created to celebrate the often-unsung contribution made to Scotland’s civic society from within the civil service, Scottish Government, Scottish Parliament, local government, health and social care sector, broader public sector and their partners within the Third Sector.

Holyrood is proud to play a part in showcasing some of the innovative and thought-provoking work being done the length and breadth of Scotland.

Inspired by the late Campbell Christie and his incredible efforts to help reform Scotland’s public services, Holyrood launched the awards in 2014 with the aim of recognising and rewarding best practice, teamwork, innovation, and clear leadership across Scotland’s diverse public services.

The awards have now become a firm fixture in all our calendars, and nominations consistently celebrate the talent, commitment and all-round compassion that exists within Scottish public service. 

Read about last year’s winners and finalists here.  

If you have any questions or are interested in partnering with these awards please use the ‘get in touch’ form below.

 

 Announcing the 2024 Shortlist:

 

The Campbell Christie Public Service Reform Award 

Martha's Mammies
Glasgow City Council

National Improving Writing Programme
The Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative (in partnership with Education Scotland and Fife CYPIC)

Peer Naloxone Project
Scottish Drugs Forum

 

The Campaign of the Year Award 

16 Days of Activism Scotland
Improvement Service and National Violence Against Women Network

Detect Cancer Earlier Marketing Campaign
Scottish Government Communications

Hello Dundee
Dundee City Council

 

The Project and Programme Management Award
(in association with Association for Project Management)

A Warm Scottish Welcome - North Lanarkshire Ukrainian Resettlement Project
North Lanarkshire Council

Regional Prosperity Framework PMO
Capital City Partnership

Tribunal Support Model Programme
Children's Hearings Scotland

 

The Commercial Partnerships Award 

Intelligent Case Notes
Citizens Advice Scotland's Extra Help Unit (EHU) and HelpFirst

Scottish 4G Infill (S4GI) Programme
Scottish Government and Scottish Futures Trust

Swiis Foster Care Scotland
Swiis Foster Care Scotland

 

The Leadership Award 

Natasha Gilmour
Head of Extra Help Unit, Citizens Advice Scotland

Rosemary Agnew
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO)

Yasmin Safder
Co-chair Scottish Government Muslim Network and Faith and Belief Network

 

The Digital Public Services Award
(in association with Leidos)
 

AI-driven voice assistant for Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS)
HelpFirst

Scottish Government Design System
The Scottish Government Design System Team

YouTube Health Shelf
NHS 24 AV team

 

The Community Engagement Award
(in association with LNER)

A Warm Welcome - North Lanarkshire Ukrainian Resettlement Project
North Lanarkshire Council

The Change Centre Dundee (Street Soccer)
Police Scotland and Street Soccer Scotland

Working For Wallacetown
South Ayrshire Council (Community Planning Partnership)

 

The Championing Diversity and Inclusion Award 

Creating a College of Sanctuary
Dundee & Angus College

Making Graduation Inclusive for All
Fife College

Tailored Jobs
South Ayrshire Council (Thriving Communities - Employability)

 

The Voluntary Sector Partnership Award
(in association with SCVO)
 

CivTech & Citizens Advice Scotland
CivTech & Citizens Advice Scotland

Linlathen Local Fairness Initiative
Dundee City Council and Brooksbank Centre and Services Dundee

Resettlement of 19 female medical students to Scotland
Norgrove Foundation, Scotland Office, and the Scottish Government

 

The Sustainability Award
(in association with Vattenfall)

AMIDS District Heating Network
Renfrewshire Council - City Deal and Infrastructure Team

Improving Inverclyde's environment through peatland restoration and tree planting
Inverclyde Council

North Lanarkshire Low Carbon Learning
North Lanarkshire Academies (NL Academies) and BE-ST

 

The Policy into Practice Award 

Breastfeeding Friendly North Lanarkshire - Leading the Way in Driving Cultural Change
North Lanarkshire Council

Scottish 4G Infill (S4GI) programme
Scottish Government and Scottish Futures Trust

Surviving Suicidal Thoughts (SST) project
NHS 24 and the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group Living and Lived Experience Panel

 

The Campbell Christie Public Service Reform Award 

An award for the team that best embodies the spirit of public service reform as envisaged by Campbell Christie in his ground-breaking vision for public service delivery of the future. With a focus on prevention, working across departmental and organisational boundaries, placing the citizen at the centre of service delivery, and working efficiently to tackle the causes of social ills, rather than solely the symptoms. 

The Campaign of the Year Award 

This award recognises exceptional performance by a team or individual in the delivery of a highly engaging, imaginative and creative communications campaign that can demonstrate real impact. Campaigns can be either internal or external stakeholders/audiences, use any channel, and any budget.  The judges are looking for measurable change, campaign recognition and real audience engagement. 

The Project and Programme Management Award (in association with Association for Project Management)

Special thanks to Chief Executive of the Association for Project Management, Prof. Adam Boddison OBE, for his help finalising the upcoming Project and Programme Management Award shortlist for this year's Scottish Public Service Awards! 

This award celebrates a team or individual demonstrating excellent practice in project, programme and portfolio management, which has led to positive change for good. The judges are looking for why the project, programme or portfolio management stood out as exceptional, and what positive impacts this had. Why was this project head and shoulders above the rest and what identifiable approaches and processes were implemented that resulted in positive outcomes and ambitions being achieved? 

The Commercial Partnerships Award 

Recognising a team or individual that has demonstrated exemplary commercial practice, achieving better outcomes for public bodies. This category is open to any public body in a commercial partnership that has shown excellence in collaborative working, including contract negotiations and management, commercial policy development, smart procurement, best practice supplier management, or new models of public service delivery. 

The Leadership Award 

The Leadership Award is open to any individual who has demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities at any level. Nominations should demonstrate how the nominee’s leadership has inspired those around them, and the impact they have made on civic society.   

The Digital Public Services Award (in association with Leidos) 

This award recognises the innovative use of digital technology to solve problems and/or improve efficiencies and ultimately deliver improvements in public services to the citizen. The judges are looking for measurable outcomes. 

The Community Engagement Award (in association with LNER)

This award recognises the work of public bodies and their delivery partners in ensuring that the communities they serve are fully engaged in the development and delivery of public services in their area. Nominees should show how these links have been made and describe what the outcome was. 

The Championing Diversity and Inclusion Award 

An award for an individual, team, group or network that demonstrably promote the values of equality, diversity and inclusion by initiating and leading action to remove barriers of discrimination and prejudice and improve the working experience and engagement levels of all employees across all strands of diversity. 

The Voluntary Sector Partnership Award (in association with SCVO) 

This award will recognise public sector organisations working in partnership with charities or community organisations to deliver better outcomes in public services. Increasingly, these partnerships provide the day-to-day services that are vital to people and communities throughout Scotland. They are often crucial for the wellbeing, or even survival, of citizens and community assets that could otherwise slip through the cracks. 

The Sustainability Award (in association with Vattenfall)

A submission in this category should demonstrate how an organisation or team has implemented policies, campaigns or technologies to help tackle the climate emergency, contribute to net zero emissions or to increase resilience to climate change in civic society. This award recognises those working towards a greener and more sustainable economy that benefits all. Entries should be supported by results. 

The Policy into Practice Award 

This award recognises a project or approach by an individual, organisation or community-based initiative that has applied public policy to an issue to make a real difference in terms of practical delivery, user experience or costs effectiveness. This award will recognise the efficacy of taking a paper policy designed in theory and putting it into real-life practice and being able to demonstrate its worth in terms of improving the lives of Scots. 

The Lifetime Achievement Award 

The Lifetime Achievement award recognises the achievements of someone who holds the good of public service to their very core. This is not open to public nomination and will be chosen by the judges. 

It’s free to enter and the deadline for nominations is Midnight 4 October. Nominations are submitted through our website, and you will need to provide: 

Summary of your nomination (100 words) 

Nomination including measurable benefits and impact (300 words) 

Opportunity to include a testimonial (150 words) 

Opportunity to upload up to three supporting items (video, images, testimonial)  

You can enter the same project for multiple categories provided the nomination is tailored to the category.  

Entry Eligibility

Unless stated under the category, entries are welcomed by those working in or with Scotland’s civic society from our civil service, Scottish Government, Scottish Parliament, local government, health and social care sector, broader public sector and their partners within the Third Sector.  

Shortlist

The shortlist will be announced in the week commencing 5 November and all shortlisted organisations will receive an invitation for the nominator and a colleague to attend the awards ceremony at the Scottish Parliament on 4 December, 6-8.30pm, where the winners will be announced.  

Benefits of Entering

The SPSA’s offer an excellent way of celebrating success and sharing innovation and best practice, whilst raising the profile of your project, team or programme.  

Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity, Scottish Government
Head of Strategic Engagement
Chief Executive
Paul Gray
Civil Service Commissioner
Lesley Fraser Headshot
Director General Corporate, The Scottish Government
Alex Hartley Headshot
Portfolio Director for Mission Support, Leidos Innovations UK
Stephen Boyle Headshot
Auditor General for Scotland
David McGill Headshot
Chief Executive, The Scottish Parliament
Bruce and John Usher Professor of Public Health
MD of Holyrood Communications and editor of Holyrood magazine
Chief Executive, SCVO

    Event Details
    • Days
      Hours
      Min
      Sec
    • Start Date
      10 Dec 2024 6:00 pm
    • End Date
      10 Dec 2024 8:30 pm
    • Status
      Upcoming
    • Location
    • Category
    • Event Hashtag

      #SPSA24

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