Social Worker of the Year Awards: Congratulations to this year’s winners!

The winners of this year’s Social Work Awards were unveiled at the annual awards ceremony in London, hosted by the care-experienced BBC journalist and presenter, Ashley John-Baptiste. The awards are always a great opportunity to celebrate great social work practice and the impact it has on the lives of vulnerable people across the country.

Team Leader of the Year (Children’s Services)

Behind every great social work team, there’s a great Team Leader providing encouragement and support.  As the sponsor of the Children’s Services Team Leader of the Year category, we’re proud to extend our congratulations to this year’s Gold Award winner, Jane Dunne of Coventry Local Authority and to Silver winner Nirvana Curley from Portsmouth Council!

Our overall winner was recognised for her fantastic work with the Family Drugs and Alcohol Court (FDAC) service in Coventry. As well as being one of the driving forces behind this vital service, Jane managed to find time to run the first FDAC peer mentoring programme, and played a key role in developing a partnership with neighbouring Warwickshire which led to a joint FDAC service being set up.

“It’s such a privilege, and there are so many other genuinely brilliant people in the room, so I feel overwhelmed and privileged. It’s fantastic.” – Jane Dunne (Coventry Local Authority)

Yorkshire & the Humber Social Workers Recognised

It’s always brilliant to see some of the great work done by colleagues in our region recognised, so we were really pleased to see three awards coming home to Yorkshire & the Humber at this year’s ceremony. A special congratulations is in order for Kirklees’ Omaid Badar, who took both the Children’s Social Worker of the year and overall Social Worker of the Year awards.

Children’s Social Worker of the Year 2023

Gold - Omaid Badar, Kirklees Children’s Social Care

Social Justice Advocate Award 2023

Gold – Elaine James, Bradford Council

AMHP Social Worker of the Year 2023

Gold - Kirsten Bingham, Hull City Council/Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust

After a great evening with so many inspirational social work stories, we’re already looking forward to next year’s awards!