Rep and officer awards

The nominations for this year’s representative and officer of the year awards are now open. 

The NEU invites members to nominate a NEU Representative/Officer who they feel deserves to be recognised by the union for their hard work and commitment.

How to make a nomination

To nominate a rep or officer please click on the link below.

A rep could be a workplace rep or Health and Safety rep. An officer could be your branch secretary, your district secretary, a membership officer, a district equality officer, or an officer for new professionals and young members.

The NEU particularly welcomes nominations of reps and officers from under-represented groups. 

Nominate a representative of the year Nominate an officer of the year

The closing date for Nominations is Friday 12 January 2024.

Nominations for Executive members will not be accepted for these awards. Executive members can submit nominations for these awards, but they should not carry more weight. Executive members should support other members, reps and local officers to submit nominations. Joint winners from different workplaces will not be permitted. 

How are nominations judged?

Nominations will be judged against the following set of criteria.  Judges will be particularly interested in nominations which demonstrate how the nominee has recruited, engaged, and organised trainees and early career teachers (ECTs) and NQTs (Wales) as this is a priority for the union.

Please provide some evidence to support your nomination - quality is more important than quantity in terms of supporting evidence. 

These awards are judged at a regional level and are made up of one rep/rep team and one officer for each region in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The regional/Wales/Northern Ireland winners are then considered for the National Representative and Officer of the Year awards.  

Supporting materials  

You may submit up to three pieces of supporting evidence for your nomination. For example, you could submit newsletters, posters or photos of events that the nominee has organised. Please take care not to submit any personal data (such as screenshots of emails that include other people’s email addresses) or photographs of people who have not given permission for their photo to be shared. Any supporting evidence that includes personal data may be redacted or may be excluded.

Please send supporting evidence by email to [email protected] clearly stating the name of your nominee and ‘Rep/Officer of the Year Award’ in the subject heading. 

Andrew Cunningham with Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary, photo by Ben Broomfield

National officer of the year 2023

The National Education Union would like to congratulate Andrew Cunningham as 2022/23 NEU national officer of the year. At his school, Parklands High School in Chorley, Lancashire, Andrew Cunningham achieved a 100 per cent turnout in the pay strike ballot. As assistant district secretary at South West Lancashire NEU, he is also credited with helping to recruit reps in some of the district’s bigger schools. Photo ©Ben Broomfield

Sarita Healey photo by Ben Broomfield

National rep officer of the year 2023

The National Education Union would like to congratulate Sarita Healey as 2022/23 NEU national representative of the year. Sarita, who works at King Edward VI Lordswood School for Girls, in Birmingham, organised colleagues to take five days of strike action – the first ever strike at the school – to oppose academisation in the summer of 2022. Photo ©Ben Broomfield

The National Education Union would like to congratulate all 2022/23 regional/Wales and NI officer and Representative winners.

List of officers and reps award winners
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