Winners were awarded based on the judges and public votes.
Thank you for your vote! Winners have been announced at the awards ceremony on 6 December.
Excellence Award
All 26 shortlisted projects are eligible to win the Excellence Award.
This award will be voted 100% during the awards ceremony on 6 December by all those attending.
Innovation Award Nominees:
1. City of Aarhus, Denmark
The Danish employment system is strict in terms of regulations supporting people into employment, but the city of Aarhus decided to implement a different way of supporting the long-term unemployed into the labour market. As part of their ‘active citizen policy’, they provide non-conditional cash grants to help people implement their own active inclusion project. Having been evaluated, this has led to an employment rate 15 percentage points higher amongst participants.
2. Regional government of Madrid, Spain
HOME YES is a community housing development providing housing and non-health care services for homeless people with chronic illnesses or who undergo rehabilitation after hospital discharge. Before, homeless people leaving hospital did not have access to personalised care. Now, this form of support where nurses, social workers, psychologists or occupational therapists provide support 24/7 will be combined with a Housing First pilot to help homeless people progress to autonomy.
3. Social Services Agency, Faroe Islands
In the past, support for young people with psychological problems was segmented between different agencies. In 2015 it was concluded that public services should provide a multi-disciplinary response to these young people needs. The answer has been Stoffalág -a setting that provides an integrated psycho-social service out of hospital within the community. The results have been positive with a reduction in medication, improvement in eating habits and social participation through volunteering or paid employment.
4. Department of Children and Youth Affairs, Ireland
The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) ensures that every child, regardless of (dis)ability, can access the Free Early Childhood Care and Education pre-school programme. AIM represents a radical departure from previous public policy by providing universal supports to make all preschools more inclusive and empower staff to welcome diversity. A central innovation is the role of ‘inclusion coordinators’; leaders who support inclusive practice for the whole pre-school programme.
5. SOS Children’s Villages International
Prepare for Leaving Care – a Child Protection System that works for Professionals and Young People is a project that contributes to the capacity building of a range of care professionals working with young people coming out of alternative care (i.e. leaving care/aging out of care) or responsible for their wellbeing. The project was implemented in Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania and Spain and trainings are currently being rolled out in Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Italy and Romania. The most innovative part of this project is the involvement of young people with care experience both in the development and the delivery of the trainings.
Outstanding Team Award Nominees:
1. Foundation for Social Welfare Services, Malta
Professionals from Youth Services within the Foundation of Social Welfare Services in Malta have come together to form a team that is working jointly and coherently to provide young people with a holistic one-stop shop. The Embark for Life project focuses on helping young people enter the labour market and is open to all young people between the ages of 15-24, many of whom have already been in touch with the Foundation.
2. Social Work Professional Association, Romania
In Cheud, Romania, a team consisting of professionals coming from different fields, is helping the Roma to develop their skills to overcome poverty and social exclusion. The programme uses local public spaces and home visits. A focus is placed on supporting integration into the labour market. The activity is the result of a partnership of the social services professionals association (ASSOC) with the local authority and schools.
3. General Council of Social Work, Spain
Spain has no national social services model or legislation. Since 2011, a team led by the Council for Social Work has been promoting a new model of social services covering the whole country. The Model, which has been gathering momentum among politicians and experts, is grouped in social services objectives, subjective rights, services and benefits, competences and financing, relationship with other sectors, relationship with NGOs and private providers.
4. Vilnius City Council, Lithuania
The social services team at Vilnius municipality created a support unit for children with disabilities in one of their nursery-kindergartens called ?iauškutis. The new service includes relaxation and recreation rooms, playrooms, a canteen, and a conference hall. The teams consist of specialists from social, health and developmental sectors with a total of 44 professionals supporting 70 children aged 2 to 12 and their families today.
5. Scottish Government, Scotland, United Kingdom
This team has been responsible for the creation of the Social Security Agency in Scotland since 2018. The project encompassed designing and implementing a single highly scalable benefits processing platform to cover multiple different benefits, with five benefits already having been successfully delivered in less than two years. The Agency has already paid out over 190M GBP in benefits to over 91,000 households and has achieved a 90% positive user satisfaction score for online applications.
6. Karin Dom, Bulgaria
A team from the organisation Karin Dom is supporting children with special needs and their families by providing high-quality therapy and adopting a family-oriented approach. At Karin Dom they run an early intervention centre and a therapy social centre supporting 300 families annually. Professionals involved include speech therapists, physiotherapists, special pedagogists, and early intervention specialist nurses.
Collaborative Practice Award Nominees:
1. Municipality of Hafnarfjörour, Iceland
In Hafnarfjörour, a consulting group from Municipal Family Services, the municipality’s Educational and Leisure Services, and schools have been working together to improve the quality of life of pre- and primary school children through a new programme. The Bridge is a counselling programme to act early enough when initial signs of distress in children have been identified.
2. Northern Ireland Social Care Council, United Kingdom
Northern Ireland Social Care Council, the Commissioner of Services, Service Providers, Educators, Service Users, Carers and Social Care Staff are jointly providing enhanced training to Home Care staff working in the public, private and non-profit sectors to equip them in delivering a changed model of home care. Enhanced training to frontline staff has led to better informed practice, improved care workers confidence, and competence.
3. Action for Children, Scotland, United Kingdom
A partnership between Action for Children, Police Scotland and Glasgow City Council’s Health and Social Care has led to the creation of a serious organised crime (SOC) early intervention service in two areas of Glasgow. The service provides an early intervention approach to target, identify and divert young people (aged 12 to 18), who are considered to be at risk, away from serious crime and to work with them in pursuing alternative paths.
4. Social Care Wales, United Kingdom
WeCare Wales is a national attraction, recruitment and retention campaign for social care across all regions in Wales, funded by Social Care Wales with representatives from the Welsh Government, local government, 3rd sector providers, and the national department of Work and Pensions. The campaign focuses on four audience groups: Parents of young people, people over 50, retail sector and people aged 14-25. The campaign also targets social care and early years employers.
5. Regional Government of Galicia, Spain
The regional ministry for social welfare, local social services consortia and the Ministry of Interior have developed ‘Mandela’, a programme that supports the social reintegration of inmates at the end of their sentences. The prison’s social inclusion team consisting of social workers, psychologists and job advisers liaises with the municipal social services team outside to support inmates develop the skills they need before they leave. Out of prison they are supported by the municipal teams.
Research Project Award Nominees:
1. Avedis Donabedian Research Institute & Regional Ministry for Social Affairs and Families of Catalonia, Spain
The Avedis Donabedian Research Institute did a piece of research which led to the implementation of an existing self-sufficiency matrix (SSM) encompassing 13 life areas providing a systematic identification of complex cases in social services. The programme was initially implemented through a pilot project and it is now being extended across the region.
2. National Centre for Training and Assessment in Social Work, Romania
The Romanian Centre for Training and Assessment in Social Work conducted a research that analysed the factors that ensure the resilience of children who undergo traumatic situations, such as children in care or at risk, in order to create appropriate intervention models. The project consisted of three parts: research into services and perceptions of vulnerabilities of children; recommendations for specialists; and the development of a training curriculum for professionals.
3. Mentaur Group, United Kingdom
In collaboration with the University of Burgos and Autism Burgos in Spain, Mentaur Group has developed a UK specific tool of indicators to measure quality of life outcomes of people with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. A qualitative research method, the Delphi technique, where a group of experts reach an agreed consensus, was used to validate the indicators guide. The tool was piloted in settings, including special schools, adult day services and residential care homes for people with Autism.
4. University of Oslo, Norway
This is a piece of research into services design and implementation for children in care with poor assessments and high levels of unmet needs. The goal of the study into new forms of assessment is to ensure that the necessary services and supervision to children in care and their carers is provided, in order to improve children’s outcomes and reduce breakdowns in care.
5. Castell-Platja d’Aro Council, Spain
The Municipality of Castell-Platja d’Aro introduced a participatory research that aims to evaluate the impact of relationship-based methodologies in social work on the quality of life of people using services. The research project started in 2015 and ended in December 2017 and it involved people in the community. Results of the research helped to better target social services planning in the municipality.
Methods & Tools Award Nominees:
1. ABD Wellbeing and Development, Spain
Eldcare Friendly Reminder is a smart device that can be installed in the homes of older people to prevent them from being isolated and lonely and help them remember their daily duties and appointments. The device consists of a screen and a smart speaker installed in the homes of people using home care. It provides daily personalised reminders in an audio-visual format to improve safety, prevent accidents and reduce loneliness.
2. University of Padova, Italy
Through the development of a multi-professional assessment and evaluation, the P.I.P.P.I. programme addresses the developmental needs of children in vulnerable families where initial signs of neglect have been identified. P.I.P.P.I.’s goal is to ensure that children have a joint action plan jointly coordinated by all the professionals involved with the family and that responds adequately to the family needs.
3. Matia Institute, Spain
LIBE is a tool consisting of 11 indicators, which allows professionals to assess four main aspects related to the wellbeing of people living with dementia in long-term care centres: interaction with other people, interaction with the environment, possibility to choose within options, and behavioural expressions of wellbeing. The tool is being regularly used to support more than 1,700 people who are currently supported in centres of Matia Foundation in Spain.
4. Regional government of Lombardy, Italy
Regione Lombardia has created a handbook with guidelines to support local authorities in the development of their electronic social records (CSI) so as to ensure that they are aligned across the region. The guidelines include information about the various elements that the CSI should contain; e.g. type of data, interoperability and functionality requirements, as well as the indicators that should be included in the definition of individual integrated care plans.
5. Welfare Department at Riga City Council, Latvia
The care needs assessment and planning tool ASCPS is a web-based database system that provides a single unified system of assessment of individual needs for the delivery of various social services. Functionalities include assessment, decision making, planning, care delivery and monitoring. The process includes also the development of integrated mobile applications for care assessment and provision.