Useful advice

Then tell the story of your entry using the following headings.

 

1 The challenge, need or opportunity

Explain the context.

• What was the need, problem or opportunity?

• Who was affected?

• Why did something need to be done?

• What did you set out to achieve?

Give the judges enough information to understand why the work mattered.

 

2 Your approach

Explain what you did and how you did it.

Describe the occupational therapy approach, programme, service, initiative, research, education, product, technology or professional support being entered.

Where relevant, explain:

• how people who access occupational therapy services were involved;
• how practitioners, partners or other professions contributed;
• how the approach was implemented;
• any particular challenges that had to be overcome.

For occupational therapy practice entries, help the judges understand the distinctive contribution of occupational therapy and how the work enabled participation in meaningful occupations, activities, roles or routines.

 

3 What makes it excellent?

Tell the judges why this work deserves recognition.

Excellence does not necessarily mean inventing something completely new.

It might be:

• an innovative approach;
• exceptionally effective practice;
• outstanding person-centred support;
• excellent collaboration;
• particularly thoughtful use of existing knowledge or resources;
• an important improvement in quality or experience;
• an outstanding product, service or technology;
• exceptional leadership, learning or workforce development.

Concentrate on what distinguishes your entry from good everyday practice.

4 Evidence and outcomes

This is one of the most important parts of your entry.

What difference did the work make?

Provide evidence wherever possible. Depending on the category, this might include:

• improvements in independence or participation;
• clinical, functional or wellbeing outcomes;
• feedback from people using services, families or carers;
• practitioner or learner feedback;
• service improvements;
• evaluation or research findings;
• workforce outcomes;
• improvements in access or inclusion;
• increased efficiency or better use of resources;
• adoption, usage or customer evidence;
• commercial results where relevant;
• other measurable or demonstrable benefits.

Numbers can be powerful, but evidence does not always have to be numerical. A strong entry explains what changed and how you know.

5 Learning and wider impact

What did you learn?

Has the work changed practice or influenced others?

Could the approach be transferred, replicated or developed elsewhere?

Has it created lasting improvement?

Tell the judges about any wider impact on occupational therapy, colleagues, organisations, communities or the people occupational therapy serves.

Tell your own story

The headings above provide a common structure so that judges can compare entries fairly.

They are not intended as a rigid checklist.

Different categories require different kinds of evidence. A research entry will naturally look different from an Employer entry; an independent practitioner will present different evidence from an NHS Trust; and a mobility product will be judged differently from an occupational therapy intervention.

The category descriptions and judging guidance explain what the judges will particularly consider.

Use the submission structure to tell your story in the way that best demonstrates excellence.

Entering more than one category

An achievement may sometimes be relevant to more than one category.

You may enter more than one category where appropriate, but think carefully about the case you are making in each one.

Simply submitting exactly the same document to several categories may not give the judges the information they need.

Where possible, tailor each entry to explain clearly why the achievement is particularly strong in the category being entered.

Entering a Gold Award

The three Gold Awards recognise exceptional excellence at individual, team/service and independent-practice level.

They are:

Occupational Therapist of the Year

Outstanding OT Team or Service

Outstanding Independent OT Practice

A Gold Award cannot be entered independently.

To enter a Gold Award, the entrant must also enter at least one of the 22 main categories.

Your main-category entry demonstrates a particular achievement. Your Gold submission should make the broader case for why the individual, team/service or independent practice represents outstanding occupational therapy excellence.

Gold judges will be looking for sustained excellence, demonstrable impact and achievement substantially beyond normal expectations.

Supporting material

Supporting material can help the judges understand and verify your entry, but quality is more important than quantity.

Useful supporting material might include: