These awards are an opportunity for you to nominate individuals or teams who have gone above and beyond to support the people of Derbyshire and shown a commitment to our values.
Nominations for Our Derbyshire Awards 2025 are open from 8 to 31 May 2025.
Make a nomination
Each nomination will be carefully considered by our shortlisting panel after which, the finalists for each category will be put forward to our judging panel, made up of our executive directors and managing director, who will choose the winners.
All finalists will be invited to an awards event.
Award categories
Our Derbyshire Awards includes 8 categories with a combination of individual and team awards, each with their own criteria.
The majority of our awards are open to nominations from any colleague or manager, however, the Serving our Communities award is also open to nominations from partners and members of the public, and the Managing Director's Award winner will be selected by the managing director personally.
Rising Star Award
This award is for employees or apprentices at an early stage of their career or profession (or who have started their career or changed profession within the organisation within the last 2 years).
Nominees have:
- demonstrated high quality work and made a positive impact
- demonstrated a commitment to our vision and values
- made great progress in their development and learning
Employee of the Year Award
This category is open to any individual employee who successfully delivers or enables the delivery of a service to either internal or external customers.
Nominees have:
- delivered excellent care or customer service
- demonstrated a positive attitude and are supportive
- been focused on meeting the needs of the customer making best use of our existing resources
- delivered something unexpected or consistently excellent performance, always in line with our values and commitments
- been nominated as a result of a specific achievement or exceptional performance within their day-to-day role
Inspiring Leader Award
This award is open to leaders at any level of the organisation, leading any team either on a permanent or temporary basis. Nominees will not necessarily be a manager of a traditional team.
Nominees have:
- set an example, inspired others and they embody our values
- proactively encouraged the development and aspirations of others
- demonstrated that they are sensitive to differing motivations of the person or people they lead
- a focus on continual improvement within their area of work
- demonstrated they are open to feedback and actively listen, seeking the views of others
- aligned their actions with our Council Plan
Lifetime Achievement Award
This category will have 4 winners – one from each of place, corporate services and transformation, children's services and adult social care and health. There will not be any other finalists for this award. Nominations can be made for individuals who have worked for us for 25 years or more.
Nominees have:
- consistently delivered exceptional performance or work in line with our values or ambition
- had a significant impact on their peers or the people who use our services during their time with us
Innovation Award
This award is for an individual or team whose achievements have delivered innovation or transformation in collaboration with others.
Nominees have:
- delivered a change or achievement that is transformational in the improvement of a service or is an innovative change
- worked collaboratively to achieve outstanding results that are focused on ensuring we're prepared for the future
- delivered a change or achieved performance that has shaped better outcomes for local people or places
Serving our Communities Award
This award is for an individual or team whose achievements support our people and places to thrive. Members of the public or partners are also invited to nominate employees for this award.
Nominees have:
- collaborated with and across our communities
- delivered excellent customer care or service
- made a difference to the lives of people in our communities
- delivered a positive change for people or places
There is a separate nomination form that can be used by a member of the public, someone who uses our services, a colleague from a partner organisation or a trade union representative. You can help us promote this award by copying and pasting the following line into your email signature when contacting someone who you feel may be interested in nominating someone.
Happy with our service? Please consider making a nomination for our 'Serving our communities' employee award to help recognise individuals and teams for their hard work.
High Performing Team Award
This award is for a team that delivers or enables the delivery of a service to either internal or external customers.
Nominees have:
- delivered a change or exceptional results for the council
- maximised their individual skills to achieve something better together
- evidenced good communication, collaboration and a commitment to their shared goals
- a focus on learning, developing and supporting each other
The Managing Director's Award
This award is for individuals who have made an exceptional contribution, for example, they may have:
- made a significant strategic contribution
- overcome challenging circumstances
- demonstrated exceptional performance
- delivered significant improvement for the lives of others in our community
Nominations
All nominees will be contacted to make sure they are happy for the nomination to be considered and that they agree to have their details published on our employee website.
If the nominee does not want any publicity, their details will be removed from the list of nominations for shortlisting. However, the details of their nomination will be passed to the relevant executive director to thank them on a one-to-one basis unless otherwise requested by the nominee.
The selection process
All nominations will be reviewed by our shortlisting panel made up of representatives from across the council from a range of roles.
If we receive many nominations, these may undergo additional shortlisting before being reviewed by the shortlisting panel. This shortlisting would be done by department directors and category specialists if required.
The shortlisting panel will select the finalists for each category. These will then be assessed by our judging panel consisting of the executive directors and the managing director.
The identity of our winners will be kept confidential until announced at the award presentation event.
The awards event
Each of our finalists will be invited to our awards event where the category winners will be announced.