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National Custody Forum Awards 2019

This is the second year of these awards, established by the Police Federation of England and Wales’ National Custody Forum (NCF), and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) to recognise the fundamental role of Custody within policing in England and Wales, and to acknowledge those that perform and demonstrate the best qualities of the role, whether that be individually or as part of a team.

These awards are now closed. 

The judging panel will now meet to select a winner in each category, and a selection of shortlisted nominees shall then be notified and invited to attend the Forum’s awards dinner later this year.

In relation to ‘team’ awards, a maximum of two members will be invited to attend.

The judgement of the panel in selecting the recipients shall be final and not open to further challenge.

The judging panel will include the following;

• Three members of PFEW’s NCF, including current custody practitioners
• NPCC Custody Lead, ACC Nev Kemp
• IOPC Director General, Michael Lockwood
• Award sponsor

This document sets out the way in which the PFEW’s National Custody Forum (NCF) will ask for, receive and judge the winners for the following awards:

• Custody Officer of the Year
  
• Custody Support Role of the Year
• Custody Team of the Year
• Outstanding Contribution to Police Custody

The NCF has been established to represent the views of all custody officers in England and Wales and raises concerns and issues at every level in our endeavours to go some way to ensure that those views and concerns are not lost in an ever evolving and rapidly changing police service.

The National Custody Forum is part of the PFEW, a representative body - its make-up and structure consists of eight regions across the country with a varying number of forces within each region.  It is because of the diversity and make up of police forces in the UK that we do not wish to limit the number of nominations to be considered for these awards.

The criteria applied for each award is laid out in the awards document along with the opening and closing dates for receiving nominations. I would also remind forces that these awards are public facing and the recipient/s may be reported in national media along with some details of their achievements. I would therefore urge forces to consider this point carefully when making nominations concerning the details of the nomination. We will however assist in maintaining anonymity of individuals where a clear request is made to do so within the nomination report.

Nominations need to be concise and identify the most salient points that demonstrate the worthiness of the recipient(s) in no more than 1000 words. We do not place any restriction on who nominates someone for an award.  

There is no limit on the number of nominations a force would like to make in each category.  

The final selection process shall be judged by the NPCC’s Custody Lead, ACC Nev Kemp; NCF Chair Chris Bentley; Michael Lockwood, Director General, IOPC; Craig Lippitt, NCF Moray Anderson; and a representative from our awards sponsor, Police Credit Union. They shall review nominations and select the recipient(s) in each category.

We have deliberately not specified the manner in which those selecting shall do so in order to ensure that plain common sense is applied to the situation and the most deserving winners identified. As stated before the decisions made are final and not open to appeal.

Nominations shall be made through the Chief Officer of each force or their directed person and the NCF invites all forces to participate and make suitable local arrangements.  Each force should encourage nomination online, via this website - we leave the direction and control of selection of nominees to them. We also therefore leave it to the force to decide if a nomination can or cannot progress forward and would suggest that they consider if it would be better for them to forward a maximum of three nominations per category or not.  A selection process in force allows for proper consideration to be given to the nuances of disclosure and may assist in identifying the best nominees in each category to represent the force and region.

Any identified anomaly in these rules should be addressed to the Chair of the NCF who will look to resolve the issue and make necessary changes where required to do so for the following years selection.

As a final word we would encourage all forces to participate and help us to raise awareness of the excellent work being conducted by custody officers on a daily basis and recognise those that help them do it!  It is our view that having pride in who we are and what we do are important attributes to maintain and these awards helps us do that. Please therefore help us recognise your staff and colleagues’ work and place it on a national stage for all to see and appreciate.

Chris Bentley
Chair, NCF

This years’ seminar and awards will take place on Tuesday 10 and  Wednesday  11 September . Venue and agenda will be confirmed in due course.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

1. Register to create an account or login
2. Confirm your account, click on the link in the email you will receive
3. Choose your category and start the entry process

You will only be able to complete your nomination once you have validated your account. Ensure you have completed all required fields in order to submit your entry.

Please select your category from the list below.