This Health & Wellbeing Award recognises the effectiveness of projects and programmes that support people to lead healthier lives. The greatest influences on people's health and wellbeing come from outside health care, including factors such as education, employment, housing, and community.

2024 Nominees

Barnet Council - SMILE (School Meal Initiative for Learning Healthy Eating)

The SMILE project adds to efforts of building a healthy weight culture in Barnet. The project is a targeted project available in Barnet only that aims to increase healthy eating behaviours in Key Stage One (KS1) primary school-aged children. The project involves using a designed meal tray and supported education.

British Red Cross - South East London Out of Hospital Project

South East London Homeless out of Hospital Pathway - a person-centred support pathway for people who are homeless, rough sleeping or at risk of becoming homeless, following treatment in hospital.

South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust - Health literacy patient leaflet project

Almost 60% of people in South Tyneside and Sunderland struggle to understand health information, disempowering them and widening health inequalities. The health literacy patient leaflet project conducted a large-scale project to rewrite Trust patient information leaflets in a way that was easier for local people to understand.

Award criteria

Projects and programmes should demonstrate:

• The implementation of approaches which support the reduction of health inequalities and an increase in healthy life expectancy
• Changing the way with talk about wellbeing so that the focus is on health as an asset, rather than ill health as a burden
• Promotion of strategies that support everyone to live a healthier life
• Support for local action to address inequalities in health
• Impact as to what you have achieved as a result of collaboration and partnership working
• Beneficiary and community impact
• Improving health across the life course within communities or setting such as the workplace, schools or care settings.  This may include changes to the natural or built environment which encourage healthy behaviours
• Implementation of community/population approaches to health improvement, including physical activity, healthy eating and weight management, smoking cessation, mental health, sexual health, and alcohol and substance misuse
• How health inequalities have been addressed through approaches such as equality impact assessment (EqIA) and/or working with groups represented within the equality act as demonstrating one or more protected characteristics

To register for the 2026 awards, your interest sign up below. 

 

Previous winners

Find out more

For more information about the Health & Wellbeing Awards and the entry process, please see our Frequently asked questions. Alternatively, please email us.