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How the assessment process works

After you hand in a nomination form, the award administrator checks each nomination to make sure the group is eligible for the award. Then the administrator sends the nominations to the local assessment panel.

Local assessment panel

Lord Lieutenants, who are representatives of the Queen in each county, organise a local assessment panel involving people with knowledge of the local community. The panel assesses all eligible nominations within their county.

During the assessment the Lord Lieutenant or their representative may visit each of the nominated groups to gain direct experience of what the group does.

The panel will then decide which nominations are successful and write a statement called a ‘panel citation’ explaining why they think the group should win the award. The panel will send the nominations and the panel citations to the national Award Committee.

Award Committee

The Award Committee is made up of volunteering experts from across the UK. They consider successful nominations and panel citations and then make recommendations of who should win the award to the Cabinet Office.

• Download a list of members of the Award Committee (PDF, 109K)

• Help with PDF files

The Cabinet Office will then send a formal proposal of which groups should win the award for final approval by Her Majesty The Queen.

How the process works for devolved administrations

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales hold independent national panels to review the recommendations of the local assessment panel in these countries.

The independent panel will decide which nominations are successful and send these, along with a citation for each successful nomination, to the Award Committee.

Winners and case studies of The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service

Find out who the latest and previous winners of the award are and read case studies about their work by following the link below.

• Winners and case studies of The Queen's Awards for Voluntary Service