Civil Service Awards

The Commissioners were pleased to sponsor once again the Cabinet Secretary Award at the 2009 Civil Service Awards. The awards ceremony was held in November at the Banqueting House in Whitehall.

Janet Paraskeva and Sir Gus O’Donnell chose as their winners a team and an individual who had made outstanding contributions to public service; demonstrating pride, passion and professionalism and embodying the values and behaviours outlined in the Civil Service Code.

The winners were selected from the category winners on the night. The team winner was Jobcentre Plus from the Department of Work and Pensions.  This organisation has been at the frontline in dealing with the consequences of the recession. Millions of people have depended on Jobcentre Plus and the organisation has successfully responded to unprecedented increases in its workload.

Jobcentre Plus shared the award with Lori Chilton from the Interventions and Substance Misuse Group in the Ministry of Justice. Lori helped to revolutionise the delivery of drug treatment programmes across the prison service. She and her team increased delivery by 100 per cent, brought in quality assurance, and set up new partnership working arrangements.  She achieved this with drive and pace, whilst dealing with a re-emergence of cancer. 

Gus and Janet also gave a special commendation to Kim Hancock of the Electronic Warfare Risk Reduction Project in the Ministry of Defence for her operational delivery work.