Make a Mayor’s Awards nomination

How to make a nomination

Nominations are now open and will close at 5.00pm on Monday 18 January 2027.

Please complete the online form below to submit your nomination. 

If you require a paper copy or Microsoft Word version of the nomination form and guidance, please get in touch with the Mayor’s Office using the contact information provided at the bottom of this page. 

Please make sure to read all of the guidance provided below before completing the nomination form. Please complete the nomination form only when you have all the supporting evidence ready to submit. 

We strongly advise that you download a copy of your nomination form for safekeeping.

Nomination guidance

Please note that only one nomination that successfully meets the Mayor’s Awards criteria will be considered for a person, group or organisation in the relevant category. Multiple nominations for the same person, group or organisation will not be considered. 

If you submit a nomination and are under 18 years, please provide a name and contact details of a parent or guardian who we can contact in relation to your nomination.

Who can be nominated for a Mayor’s Award

• Mayor’s Awards are given to recognise individuals, groups and organisations who have gone above and beyond to serve the community. We are looking for people who have made an outstanding contribution to life in Kensington and Chelsea.
• this could be residents running initiatives to improve mental and physical wellbeing, those serving on community forums to strengthen community safety as well as champions of culture and heritage in the borough.  
• Mayor’s Awards are given to recognise people who live, work or study in the borough, or organisations that are based and operate within the borough. 
• the Voluntary and Community Sector Organisation category can be awarded for paid or voluntary work. However, if you do nominate an organisation for paid work, you must demonstrate how they have gone above and beyond what is typically expected from their organisational operations. Please note: if you submit a nomination for an organisation which simply describes their organisational objectives, the nomination may not be eligible for a Mayor’s Award.  

Mayor's Awards criteria

Mayor’s Awards recognise people, groups and organisations who have made an outstanding contribution to life in Kensington and Chelsea. We are looking for people who have gone above to support others in the borough.

They must live, work or study in the borough, or be an organisation based and operating in the borough.

Who cannot be nominated

You cannot nominate:

• yourself
• an elected RBKC Councillor
• a Council Officer for their work at the Council
• anyone for services to or for any political party or related organisation
• a nomination to obtain or reward political favour, or reward or promote political activities

In the Individual Contribution and Young Achiever categories, nominations cannot be submitted for paid work.

Mayor’s Awards cannot be awarded posthumously or to organisations that are no longer in operation.
An individual/group/organisation cannot win a Mayor’s Award more than once, so please do not make nominations for people or organisations that have previously been given a Mayor’s Award.

Award categories

There are three different categories for Mayor’s Awards. You must indicate on the nomination form which category you are making a nomination under.  

Individual Contribution

The Individual Contribution Mayor’s Award is intended to recognise an individual for their outstanding work in the community.

The person you are nominating must:

• be aged over 18 years old (or over 25 years old if they have a disability or are a care leaver) as of 18 January 2027
• take part in voluntary work that makes a significant difference to the lives of RBKC residents. For example, this could be someone supporting local residents with community gardening to make the borough a greener place or someone making an incredible difference by setting up a food bank or volunteering to provide mentoring support to young people.  In the nomination form, you must demonstrate how they have gone above and beyond to serve the community
• not be nominated for paid work
• not be a former Mayor’s Award winner

Young Achiever

The Young Achiever Mayor’s Award is intended to recognise an individual or a group of young people working together. If the form is being completed for a group of young people (rather than for an individual young person), you will be asked to provide the name of the group and contact details for the group’s co-ordinator/facilitator (who should be over 18).

The person or group you are nominating must: 

• be aged under 18 years old (or under 25 years old if they have a disability or a care leaver) as of 18 January 2027
• take part in voluntary work that makes a significant difference to the lives of RBKC residents (this excludes community work undertaken as part of the Duke of Edinburgh or other similar programmes). For example, this could be a young person volunteering at a local care home or personally fundraising for local charities. In the nomination form, you must demonstrate how they have gone above and beyond to serve the community
• not be nominated for paid work
• not be a former Mayor’s Award winner

Voluntary and Community Sector Organisation

The Voluntary and Community Sector Organisation Mayor’s Award is intended to recognise charities, mutual aid groups, community organisations and voluntary organisations doing incredible work to support local communities. For example, this could be a voluntary organisation that runs a project to support local people with IT training or a charity that runs an initiative to upcycle goods for re-use in the community.

Although you will be asked to identify a lead contact at the organisation when you are completing the nomination form, the Award recognises all of the people who work or volunteer for the organisation. Therefore, it is important that you mention the work of the whole organisation, rather than just one individual, when you are submitting your nomination form.

The organisation you are nominating must: 

• not be a former Mayor’s Award winner – please note, this includes where an individual has previously won a Mayor’s Award for their work relating to the nominated organisation. 
• carry out work (paid or voluntary) that makes a significant difference to the lives of residents of RBKC. Entrants should be RBKC based or, if not entirely RBKC based, their nomination should focus on the work they do in RBKC. In the nomination form, you must demonstrate how the organisation goes above and beyond to serve the community. 

Supporting your nomination

When you complete the nomination form, you need to explain why you believe the person(s)/organisation you are nominating deserves an award, and to provide three to five pieces of supporting evidence from other people. 

The form will ask you to explain: 

1. How you know the person(s)/organisation you are nominating? (Up to 100 words) 
2. Please provide a brief description of how you know the nominee. For example, do you work with them? What work has/have the nominee(s) done to deserve a Mayor’s Award and specify how the nominee has gone above and beyond to serve the borough’s residents? (Up to 750 words)

This is the most important question on the form as it allows the judging panel to understand why the nominee deserves to win a Mayor’s Award. Remember, do not simply include a job description, we would like to know who the nominee has helped, what the effects of their work has been, for how many people and over what time period.

You will be asked to upload three to five pieces of supporting evidence from other people to support your nomination along with their contact details. This evidence is typically written and will ideally come from a variety of supporters as it is useful to hear from a range of people who have interacted with the nominee, such as:

• service users
• local residents
• colleagues 
• elected representatives
• civic Leaders
• community Leaders
• faith Leaders; and
• others who have benefited from the nominee’s work in the community

As the Mayor’s Awards recognise those who make a positive difference to the lives of others in local communities across the borough, we recommended that at least two out of the minimum three pieces of supporting evidence should come from a service user, local resident or another person that has directly benefited from the nominee’s work in the community.

We recommend that the supporting evidence that others provide for your nomination cover the questions listed above. In other words, it should: 

• describe in detail why the nominated person deserves a Mayor’s Award and provide information of the work they have done to deserve a Mayor’s Award. Each supporter should aim to write at least half a page (250 words). 
• outline what relation they are to the nominated person, for example: how do they know the nominated person, how long have they known them.

What happens after you submit your nomination

Initial selection

Once you have submitted your nomination form, the Mayor’s Office will do an initial screening of the nomination. If your nomination does not meet the relevant category criteria, or if the nomination form is not completed fully, your nomination will not be progressed to the panel stage. 

No longer than 10 working days following your nomination submission, the Mayor’s Office will email you to let you know if your nomination has been accepted and progressed to the panel stage. If your nomination has not been accepted, they will indicate that the criteria has not been met or that the nomination form was not fully completed. 

You may resubmit your nomination any time up until the closing date of 5.00pm on Monday 18 January 2027. For this reason, we recommend you submit your nomination form as early as possible so that the Mayor’s Office can contact you before the closing date if there is a problem with your nomination. 

Nominations submitted after the closing date will not be accepted. 

After the closing date for nominations, the Mayor’s Awards panel will meet to discuss nominations. 

The Mayor’s Awards panel is made up of the following representatives: 

• Councillor Janet Evans, Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea 
• Councillor Elizabeth Campbell, Leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council
• Councillor Monica Press, Leader of the Labour Group at Kensington and Chelsea Council
• Michael Ashe, CEO of Volunteer Centre Kensington and Chelsea
• Angela Spence, CEO of Kensington and Chelsea Social Council
• Noha Chentouf, Youth Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

The panel will consider all complete and eligible nominations and decide on the winners for each category. After the panel has reached its decision, and within one month after the closing date, the Mayor’s Office will notify all Mayor’s Awards winners of their success by email. All those who have submitted nominations will also be informed whether their nomination was successful or not by email. 
The Mayor’s Awards panel’s decision is final and cannot be discussed. 

Attempts to contact members of the Mayor’s Awards panel relating to a nomination or the decisions of the panel will lead to the nomination in question being withdrawn. 

The Mayor’s Office can provide guidance on the eligibility of nominations or how to complete the nomination form, however they cannot comment on the merit of individual nominations or discuss decisions made by the panel. 

Nominations and all information submitted on the nomination form is treated confidentially and only shared securely with the members of the panel. While the panel will know the names of nominees, nominators and nomination supporters, all contact information will be redacted. 

Only the names of Mayor’s Awards winners will be made public, names and information about those who have been nominated unsuccessfully will remain confidential. 

Along with the names of Mayor’s Awards winners, information provided in the supporting evidence for nominations may be referred to or briefly quoted in Council publications or communications. 

Complete the nomination form

Please make sure you have the following information ready in order to complete the Mayor’s Awards nomination form: 

1. your name and contact details or a parent/guardian if you are under 18.
2. name and contact details of the person or organisation you are nominating.
3. know which Mayor’s Award category you are nominating them for 
4. information to support your nomination explaining why this person deserves to win a Mayor’s Award.
5. names, contact details and supporting evidence of three to five people who support your nomination. 

Make a nomination

Further help and advice

If you require the nomination form in a different format, are experiencing any trouble making your nomination or require further guidance on the eligibility of your proposed nomination, please get in contact with the Mayor’s Office using the contact details below.

The Mayor's Office
Kensington Town Hall
Hornton Street
London
W8 7NX

Telephone: 020 7361 2430
Mobile: 07790 979 247
Email: [email protected]