Awards
Spirit of Service Awards
IPAA ACT’s Spirit of Service Awards recognise and celebrate the best of the public sector – the people and initiatives driving positive change for the Australian community.
With award categories recognising excellence in Breakthrough, Collaboration, Community Engagement and Learning initiatives, alongside the discretionary Kerry Kennedy Award and the People’s Choice Award, the awards are a powerful way to acknowledge excellence in public service, build pride in the profession, and amplify the impact of nominating agencies.
The nomination period for the 2026 Awards opens on 16 February and closes on 2 June 2026. All IPAA ACT member organisations are encouraged to apply. Review the nomination guidelines and download the nomination template to get started. (More details are available below).
To help you get started, join one of our informational Q&A sessions on 10 or 12 March. RSVP here.
What story of positive change do you want to tell?
Important nomination information
Why nominate? Learn more about the benefits of nominating your team for a Spirit of Service Award.
- 2026 nomination template
- 2026 nomination guidelines
- Nomination scoring guide
- 2026 nomination entry fees
Have questions? Join one of our informational Q&A sessions on 10 or 12 March. RSVP here.
Ready to nominate? Nominations must be submitted through our online portal here.
Interested in being a volunteer assessor?
Assessors will be asked to review and score 3 nominations. Each review takes approximately 1 hour to complete, requiring a total of 3-hours’ time commitment spread across the 3-week assessment period. Assessors with an APS 6 or EL1-2 or equivalent levels who have a background in evaluation, assessment and/or review across policy or program areas are preferred. Please note that IPAA ACT carefully manages potential conflicts of interest, so assessors will not be assigned any nominations from a current or previous employer. To submit your interest, complete and return the Assessor EOI form to the Awards team.
The awards are open to all IPAA ACT organisational members. The initiative submitted should be related to public administration or a public service outcome.
Joint nominations where cross-organisational and/or cross-jurisdictional collaboration has contributed to the common end-to-end initiative are encouraged in all categories, provided the lead agency is an IPAA ACT member. The “Lead Agency” is the agency with primary carriage of the initiative. Supporting or collaborating agencies involved in the joint initiative can be government, non-government, or both and do not need to be IPAA ACT members.
This Awards program explicitly recognises the work of teams, and therefore IPAA ACT will not accept nominations that focus solely on the work of an individual.
Nominations are charged an entry fee based on the IPAA ACT membership tier of the nominating organisation. The nomination fee assists us in delivering a high-quality awards program, sharing the learnings across the public sector, and recognising the achievements of agencies, including a formal awards ceremony gala dinner. If you are a smaller agency with budgetary restrictions, please contact us to discuss your nomination options.
The Spirit of Service Awards are assessed over multiple stages. Nominations submitted online are first assessed by trained volunteer assessors, then undergo a moderation phase by a subset of the judges panel who select a shortlist of finalists in each of the four core award categories: Breakthrough, Collaboration, Community Engagement and Learning.
Finalists then develop a pitch video describing their initiative (finalists are provided with pitch training to assist them with preparation). They then present their pitches to the judges panel, who convene to decide on the winner for the Breakthrough, Community Engagement, Collaboration and Learning categories. The judges will also select one winner from among all the finalists to receive the Kerry Kennedy Award.
The People’s Choice Award will be selected from among all the finalists by peer and community voting, which will be open during August and September.
Winners of all 6 awards will be announced at the award ceremony.
Interested in being an assessor?
Assessors will be asked to review and score 3 nominations. Each review takes approximately 1 hour to complete, requiring a total of 3-hours’ time commitment spread across the 3-week assessment period. Assessors with an APS 6 or EL1-2 or equivalent levels who have a background in evaluation, assessment and/or review across policy or program areas are preferred. Please note that IPAA ACT carefully manages potential conflicts of interest, so assessors will not be assigned any nominations from a current or previous employer. To submit your interest, complete and return the Assessor EOI form to the Awards team.
The IPAA ACT Spirit of Service Awards were launched in October 2021 and are supported by a number of leaders across the Australian and ACT Public Services.
Award categories
Collaboration
Recognising cross-agency and/or cross-jurisdiction initiatives where organisations (government, non-government, or both) have collaborated to deliver superior outcomes.
This Award acknowledges that the complexity of contemporary challenges within Australia will be addressed in a more comprehensive way when solutions are not limited by structures and hierarchies. Sustained outcomes are achieved through meaningful and ongoing collaboration within and across organisations and jurisdictions.
Leading national ‘One Health’ preparedness to mitigate impacts of a potential H5 bird flu outbreak
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; National Emergency Management Agency; Department of Health, Disability and Ageing; Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
Community Engagement
Recognising initiatives where communities have been deliberately engaged in novel ways and/or have played a key role in designing and delivering superior services, regulations and policies that positively impact the quality of community life.
This Award acknowledges that competing stakeholder views and needs must be considered when designing or changing a policy, program, or project. The extent to which the needs and expectations of different stakeholders will be satisfied may vary, but it is important that they are clearly defined in order to ensure excellent and innovative outcomes.
2025 Community Engagement winner
Whyalla Transition Support Team
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
Breakthrough
Recognising initiatives that develop and/or apply novel and ingenious analyses, products, processes, services, technologies and/or management practices to create better outcomes for beneficiaries. Breakthroughs also include continuous improvement and repurposing of existing practices.
This Award acknowledges the importance of high-quality thinking when defining a challenge and designing and implementing a response. It is also about the ability to apply an open and constructive mindset and a readiness to explore new ideas and accept new ways of working within the framework that applies to public sector activities.
Breaking through Indigenous language barriers to close the gap and reduce debt and vulnerability for customers in remote communities
Services Australia
Learning
Recognising initiatives that embrace adaptation and continual improvement to address complex challenges.
This Award celebrates programs, initiatives and approaches that go beyond traditional learning and development training, focusing instead on iterative development and adaptive response. It acknowledges efforts that deliberately test and refine practices through cycles of experimentation, reflection, and modification.
These initiatives demonstrate a commitment to future-proofing by engaging with ambiguity, learning from setbacks, and using insights from calculated trials and risks to drive improvement. They exemplify the mindset that progress emerges from curiosity, resilience and the courage to adapt in the face of change.
Service Delivery Immersion Program – Senior Executive
Services Australia
Important dates for the 2026 Spirit of Service Awards
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Nominations open | Mon 16 February |
| Nomination Q&A sessions (optional) | Tues 10 March and Thurs 12 March |
| Nominations close | Tues 2 June |
| Finalists announced | July 2026 |
| Finalist pitch training | August 2026 |
| Finalist pitch event | Mid-September 2026 |
| Award ceremony | Thurs 5 November |
Winners & finalists
Congratulations to the winners of the Spirit of Service Awards for 2025!
The winners were announced at the award ceremony at the National Arboretum in Canberra on 22 October 2025. The awards were presented by Letitia Hope, IPAA ACT deputy president and deputy secretary, Department of Social Services and Justine Greig PSM, IPAA ACT deputy president and deputy secretary, Defence People, Department of Defence.
Kerry Kennedy Award
The Kerry Kennedy Award celebrates small organisations or agencies who, despite fewer resources, achieve excellence by thinking outside of the box and collaborating.
The award is in honour of Kerry Kennedy, who was an assessor of the inaugural Prime Minister’s Awards and actively involved in the awards for 17 years. After Kerry passed away in 2019, the Kerry Kennedy Award was introduced to the Prime Minister’s Awards, and was later carried over as a judges discretionary award as part of the Spirit of Service Awards program.
The winner is selected from among the finalists who submitted nominations to the four core award categories. Read more about the intent behind the Kerry Kennedy Award and past winners.
Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm Operations Team
ACT Public Service
CSC People's Choice Award
The CSC People’s Choice Award celebrates an outstanding public sector initiative that has made a meaningful impact on Australian communities, recognising the behind-the-scenes contributors whose everyday excellence makes a lasting difference. All finalist initiatives are eligible to receive the award, and what makes it unique is that the winner is chosen by votes from public sector peers, providing an opportunity for public sector colleagues to celebrate each other’s achievements.
This award reminds us that excellence doesn’t happen in isolation – it grows through connection, through trust, and through the shared commitment to serve something bigger than ourselves.
Medicare Urgent Care Clinics
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Gurumbal
We are honoured to have been given permission by the Winanggaay Ngunnawal Language Group to align the word ‘Gurumbal’ with our Spirit of Service Awards. ‘Gurumbal’ is a Ngunnawal word meaning ‘valiant’. It encapsulates the courage and determination recognised by the Spirit of Service Awards – outstanding public sector initiatives that have a lasting, positive impact on the Australian community. Watch to see Aunty Jude Barlow talk about the true meaning of ‘Gurumbal’ and how it relates to the Spirit of Service.
2024 Spirit of Service Awards
Q&A session
Interested to nominate? Watch this Q&A webinar to gain clarification on the nomination guidelines, award categories, and judging criteria.
