Department of Health

Award categories

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The Victorian Public Healthcare Awards recognise leadership and excellence in the provision of publicly funded healthcare in response to established and emerging community needs.

The award categories reflect the Victorian Government's healthcare priorities and focus on the sector's ability to drive change and improve health outcomes for all Victorians.

We are also celebrating our health volunteers as part of this year's awards.

This year, the Victorian Public Healthcare Awards recognise achievements in 21 categories across three types of awards:

Achievement eligibility

Please note this year's entries should relate to achievements from 5 June 2022 – 4 June 2023. The initiative may have started earlier, but the achievements highlighted in the entry must have occurred within this period.

General Awards

General Awards entry: Tips and advice

    • Make sure your entry is in the right award category. Please review the award category description and criteria to decide on the most appropriate category for your entry as we cannot review or advise which award you should apply for.
    • Answer all the award category’s specific assessment criteria. Be aware that criteria questions may change from one category to the other so it is important to read, understand and respond to the criteria specific to the award category you are entering. Your entry should provide information about the individual, organisation or initiative; the reason for the entry; and the benefits that have flowed to consumers or the community.
    • Pay attention to criteria weighting. Criteria questions that are weighted more heavily (with a higher number) are worth more than others. Details of weighting can be found in the award category criteria.
    • Wait for program results before you consider entering the initiative into the awards. Many entries are submitted too early. It’s imperative you include reliable data to demonstrate your achievements.
    • Understand the judging criteria. The judges can only score the entry based on the judging criteria. Make sure you plan your entry around answering all the selection criteria, paying more attention to the sections with higher weighting. Stronger entries articulate how the work will continue and how it is relevant to other parts of the healthcare sector. It is vital that your stated 'objectives' relate to the 'outcomes' in your entry.
    • Evidence is paramount. The judges are looking for evidence that supports your assertions, particularly when describing the benefit to the consumer, community or region. Refer to the evidence in your entry and use the attachments to show the supporting data. Never make assertions or generalisations unless they can be supported by reliable data. If it relates to a national standard, you need to demonstrate how you have gone above and beyond the requirements under the standard.
    • Be careful when making big claims and ensure that any assertions of being the first, the largest, or the most are accompanied by supporting evidence. If your entry wins, it will be published, and you want to be able to support your claim.
    • Is your catchment really ‘the most disadvantaged’? Many organisations make this claim. If you claim disadvantage, you should demonstrate your commitment to tackling and addressing it.
    • Have you claimed consumer involvement and participation? The judges want evidence that you had meaningful engagement with consumers throughout your initiative, which has resulted in better care, better outcomes and better patient experiences.
    • Impact is important. Top-ranked entries outline the number of people impacted by the initiative and why the approach was an effective and efficient way of achieving these results. The judges are not looking for the largest budgets or initiatives, but rather a demonstration of achieving the best value through outcomes and supporting quantitative data.
    • Tell a convincing story and demonstrate how your story was achieved. Judges are looking for passionate stories about innovation, quality and excellence that benefit the community. Sell your project – innovation, sustainability and the replicability of your initiative are key points judges look at when scoring.
    • The way you write your entry is important – make it interesting and informative. It's often the care in writing an entry that is the difference between finalist and non-finalist entries. Take the time to write your best possible entry, include robust statistics – and don't be afraid to blow your own trumpet!
    • Get a fresh opinion. Ask someone outside of your area (or even better outside the health sector) to check your entry. A standout entry will be a compelling read, using plain English and free of acronyms (or spelled out in full first) and jargon. It's best to assume the judges are not from a health background.
    • More than core business? Convince the judges that what you have achieved is more than core business or what could normally be expected from the amount of money or resources invested in the program. Explain why your results are significant in terms of the overall investment.
    • Resubmitting a previous entry? Include new data or developments, and focus on new achievements or results that support the initiative – for example, what has happened since you last submitted the entry? Don't re-enter your submission without describing what has changed since you last submitted it. Remember, if it has previously won, you cannot re-enter, with the exception of the Premier's Health Service of the Year Awards.
    • Winning entries demonstrate outstanding patient experiences and engagement, and that the individual or team have gone ‘above and beyond’ – not just at the beginning or end, but all the way through.
    • Be mindful of partnerships and acknowledge collaboration.
    • Keep to the specifications in the online entry form – this is how the judges determine your entry score.

    Download

    General Awards entry tips and advice
    docx 144.55 KB

Premier's Health Service of the Year Awards

The Premier's Health Service of the Year Awards are Victoria's most prestigious accolade to which a health service can aspire. These awards recognise leadership and excellence in the provision of publicly funded healthcare for the Victorian community.

The Premier's Health Service of the Year Award entries are assessed against seven assessment criteria that represent the strategic ways in which excellent healthcare is delivered. They have their own set of criteria by which winners will be judged.

Volunteer Awards

We are once again celebrating our health volunteers as part of the Victorian Public Healthcare Awards.

This gives more prominence to how we recognise our volunteers and show that they are not separate to our healthcare sector, but an essential part of how we care for Victorians.

The Volunteer Awards have their own set of criteria by which winners will be judged. This provides a broader scope, allowing nominations for any kind of volunteer contribution.

Finalists for this category will be invited to attend the Awards Gala Night.

Volunteer Awards entry: Tips and advice

    • Ensure you understand the criteria the judges will be scoring on as outlined in the entry form.
    • Be mindful of team work and acknowledge collaboration.
    • Use simple English and, if you must use jargon or acronyms, give a definition at first use.
    • Ensure you spell check and keep to the word limit and specifications in the entry form.
    • Be clear about the different categories and which category your entry is best suited to.
    • Entries are more interesting to read when written in an active voice. Writing in the active voice means constructing sentences where the subject ‘acts’. For example, every Wednesday Ben arrived at the hospital to volunteer or Ben always put his hand up to help out when needed.
    • Ask a colleague or a friend to read and edit your entry before submitting it. This will help ensure it reads well, is grammatically correct, and highlights the important information.
    • Judges want to be inspired by what they read. A good exercise to perform is to pretend you are telling the judge in person why you would nominate your colleague/friend. What makes them special in their work? All good stories contain elements of who, what, where, when, why and how.
    • Think strategically. Look at the impact your nominee(s) has had as part of a greater team and organisation. By relating it to the bigger picture you show their work has more reach than just doing their job.
    • Winning entries demonstrate outstanding ongoing engagement and experiences with the community.
    • Winning entries demonstrate that the team or individual has gone ‘above and beyond’ the average volunteer. Their work/volunteering should inspire the community and Victorians.

    Download

    Volunteer Awards entry tips and advice
    docx 141.63 KB

Reviewed 31 July 2023

Health.vic

Contact details

Victorian Public Healthcare Awards Awards Secretariat

healthcareawards@health.vic.gov.au
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