To enter the Occupational Therapy Excellence Awards you need to prepare your submission paper, complete the online entry form and upload your paper. Submitting your entry will then lead you to payment page to cover the entry fee.
Entries must be submitted online. Your written entry must be no more than 1,500 words in English (12 point type, single line spacing) saved in PDF format (10MB maximum file size), uploaded from your desktop to the Awards’ website, when asked by the Entry Form. All entries should be uploaded following the template sections listed below. The Judges will automatically mark lower any entries exceeding the word count. At the same time, the judges will appreciate the conciseness of an entry. There is no need to use the full word count. Please adhere to these basic rules of entry, together with any other specific criteria described below.
Photographs and video material may be made available for the judges to view, either upload these through the online entry form at time of submission or upload them to YouTube or Vimeo. You will need to include in your submission a link to YouTube or Vimeo, where the judges can look at any additional visual material. Do not upload a photo file larger than 5MB with your entry form as it will be rejected. Thumbnail images of illustrative material can be embedded in your written submission, if they help the judges understand your entry, but the judges will want to see larger reference images – one of which must be uploaded with your entry form.
The closing date for entries is February 29 2024 and you will need to pay the relevant fee before your entry will be processed for judging.
Template guide
Your completed entry form and your written entry are the basis on which each entry will be voted for by the judges and shortlisted. Your written document should show how your therapy, programme, course, initiative, product or service met its aims, employed creative, innovative techniques, was enjoyed by users, and delivered enrolment or uptake, satisfaction and a return on investment, thus giving the judges a view as to effectiveness. At the beginning of your document the following information must be listed:
- Category entered
- Title of project
- Relevant URL for the therapy, programme, course or initiative
- Name of organisation making the entry
- Type of organisation about which the entry is written (e.g. practice, independent therapist, supplier, retailer, etc)
- Relevant URL for access to supporting visual material or other data. (Links to Vimeo/YouTube, etc)
Within your submission it is preferred if you use the following as sub-headings under which you clearly provide your explanation for the judges. We have indicated the points that can be awarded to give you an idea as to the weight of importance the judges ascribe to each caption.
- Aims for therapy, programme, course, initiative, product or service, including why the aims were set (up to 10 marks)
- Strategy employed and implementation (up to 15 marks)
- Innovation/new use of technology (up to 20 marks)
- Explanation of entry and relevance to category (up to 20 marks)
- Feedback and experience summary from clients and/or users (up to 20 marks)
- Outcomes (including formal evaluation of results, ROI, etc, all to provide proof of effectiveness or excellence (up to 15 marks)
- Please note: organisations entering the Start-up category are not necessarily tied to the template shown above as their entry may be more about the reasons for setting up the company, operating methods, standards set, monitoring/measurement of outcomes, etc.
- Entries for the OT Excellence Awards can only be submitted online. If you are an agency entering on behalf of a client, please make sure they are aware of your plans and approve of your entry.
Support material
If you wish to provide additional support material (for instance if there has been marketing collateral or video work associated with your campaign) please provide a link to YouTube or Vimeo, where the judges can view your material.
The judges will want to feel fully informed about your activity, so please include whatever you feel is appropriate and relevant for your entry. If an entry is entered into more than one category, please indicate this clearly, but remember you need to remind the judges of the micro site URL for the support material, each time you enter.
It is worth stressing that a good entry will have high quality visual support. So, it is tremendously important that you include as many visuals as you can to illustrate content and its impact. The judges don’t want massive photos, but they’d rather have that than small postcard-sized images that are too small to be useful. Bottom line: making it easy for our judging panel to see and understand what you did will only help. Relying on tiny thumbnail images in your written summary is helpful, but not the best idea. Always provide the full size images, too.
Disqualifications
The Occupational Therapy Excellence Awards are UK-wide business awards. The organizers intend that the competition is open to the whole OT sector, but any website that breaks national or international laws or offends public, religious, national or gender-specific sensitivities, or that flouts advertising, promotion or Internet rules (such as spamming) will be disqualified. If an entry is disqualified for any reason the entry fees will not be refunded.