The 2012 Excellence Awards take place within a context of considerable challenge for public services.  Our emphasis in 2012 will be on rewarding innovative and passionate developments that are tackling these challenges head on and making a difference to communities.

Across the country, in rural and urban communities, visionary approaches are being applied to local issues and these are the kinds of projects the COSLA Excellence Awards will celebrate.  We want to use the 2012 Excellence Awards to find those who are setting new standards for excellence and to help spread their good practice.

Local Government faces unprecedented challenges over the next few years.   As budgets are squeezed by increased demand and falling income, councils are being faced an ever changing set of challenges.  At the same time, our communities expect and deserve excellent public services, and so now more than ever the emphasis of the awards must be on developing innovation that can be shared across the local government family.  That also means designing services that are affordable and sustainable for the long term, often by shifting the focus towards reducing long term demand by improving early intervention and prevention.

Our watchwords are innovation, affordability and a focus on outcomes – and to be recognised by the awards, your applications will be able to demonstrate these qualities.

More information about the awards and how to take are set out in our ”Guidance for Applicants” which  can be downloaded here.