After a summer spent reviewing and rating the 346 nominations received for this year’s Award Scheme, our volunteer Sifting Panel met – online, of course – at the end of September to agree the shortlist to go through to the final stage of judging for the 2020-21 Butler Trust Awards.

We were delighted, particularly in this most challenging of years, that the standard was as high as ever, which made the decision-making as difficult as always – but after much deliberation, the Sifting Panel agreed to put through a final shortlist of 40 nominations.

Congratulations to all of the following – and good luck in the next stage of the process (our final Judging Panel will meet in November and we will announce the names of this year’s Award Winners and Commendees in the New Year):

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Last Tuesday, prisons, probation offices and youth justice services up and down the country celebrated the first national Thank you #HiddenHeroesDay, in tribute to the outstanding service of the #HiddenHeroes working in our prisons, IRCs, probation and youth justice services, especially during the covid-19 outbreak. They were joined on the day by Butler Trust Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, at a special event at HMP Bullingdon.

Zoe Ball fired the starting gun with a shoutout on her Radio 2 Breakfast Show – and we were off and running…

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When we decided to go ahead with this year’s Awards, it was because we felt it was more important than ever, right now, to recognise the work of the most outstanding Hidden Heroes in our prisons, IRCs, probation services and youth justice settings. But we were also rather nervous, under the circumstances, about how many nominations we’d get.

We needn’t have worried… because, in spite of all the challenges the sector is facing right now, we received almost 350 nominations – the second highest number ever – from colleagues, managers, prisoners and service users, all wanting to recognise the extraordinary impact their nominees were making to other people’s lives.

We’d like to say a big thank you to all of you who took part this year, and good luck to all the nominees. Now we, and our Awarding Panel, need to get on and do our thing – it takes a while (it’s not something you can rush) but we’ll keep you in touch with our progress.

Nominations are now open for this year’s Butler Trust Awards!

The Awards are presented by our Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, and help give credit where it’s due to people who go above and beyond in their work in prisons, probation and youth justice settings (including volunteers and third-party employees) – and just being nominated shows someone’s efforts have not gone unnoticed.

While we know it is a particularly difficult time for everyone at the moment, it feels more important than ever right now to give credit where it’s due. You can find more about the Awards, and how to nominate someone, in the Awards section of this site. And you can view a short video here.

While we rightly celebrate the extraordinary contributions of the heroes in our NHS and other essential services at this time, the #HiddenHeroes working on in our prisons, as well as their probation and youth justice colleagues, deserve our gratitude too.

But because their work takes place behind the scenes and literally, in the case of prison staff, behind closed doors, they can sometimes feel forgotten.

That’s why we’ve launched a new site – www.HiddenHeroes.UK – to collect together messages of thanks and support from across the country, to show them people do care, and they’re not forgotten.

The site includes messages from prisoners, family members and colleagues, as well as the general public, like:

“We all owe you a massive thank you for what you do every day but especially at this difficult time. Keep safe.” From: J and E, Market Bosworth

“Well done and thank you to prison and probation staff for everything you’re doing at this difficult time. You are all stars! ⭐⭐.” From: Shelley, Surrey

“Thank you for your hard work and commitment in especially difficult circumstances. It is noticed and very much appreciated.” From: Valerie, Loughborough

You can add your own messages there too, or email them to us at info@butlertrust.org.uk, and we’ll add them for you.