Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award

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This award celebrates teams or companies that demonstrate outstanding practice in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Our goal is to showcase innovative ideas – both established and emerging – and inspire the creation of inclusive cultures and health communications across the industry.

Who Can Enter

Open to healthcare and medical communications agencies and in-house teams delivering projects or programmes that improve DEI in either of the areas below:

A – Company Initiatives

Internal programmes driving DEI within the organisation, or pro-bono external work promoting inclusion in society or healthcare communications.

B – Client Initiatives

Projects focused on DEI and/or inclusive communications that specifically target diverse communities.

Entry Overview

Entries are welcome from all sizes of initiatives – from pilot projects to company-wide programmes. Judges will consider scale when reviewing entries. Global networks must clearly state UK-based elements and outcomes

  • Demonstrate DEI as a business priority with measurable criteria and statistics.

For guidance, the following are examples of factors the judges will be looking for:

Company Initiatives

  • DEI as a business priority with measurable goals
  • Clear DEI philosophy delivered via sustainable activity
  • Alignment with company objectives and strategy
  • Senior leadership involvement, and engagement with staff at all levels
  • Evidence of inclusive culture, DEI training and employee experiences
  • Dedicated resources (time/budget) for DEI activities
  • Measurement – e.g. KPIs, gap analysis, progress tracking.


Client Initiatives:

  • Insight-driven strategies based on community understanding (including health literacy, accessibility)
  • Inclusive principles applied across data and insights, creative, tactical, and media strategies
  • Co-creation with communities and advocates
  • Participation in external networks for best practice
  • Representative storytelling in voices, imagery, and perspectives
  • Recognition of diversity challenges in healthcare, and scientific narratives and publications

JUDGING CRITERIA AND ENTRY FORMAT

Executive Summary – 200 words. 0 (zero) marks (not reviewed by the judges)

The Executive Summary will be used if the entry is selected as a finalist. Entrants should provide a concise overview explaining why the project, programme or event is award-worthy. This should highlight what makes the work unique, differentiating or innovative, and why it stands out within its category.

Main entry

It is essential to provide links to platforms/apps/videos etc to help the judges get an experience of any digital or immersive experiences, plus if passwords are required, ensure these are also included.

Entrants must indicate the budget band that reflects the fee value of the time spent delivering the project, programme or event. The following bands should be used:

Band A under £10,000

Band B £10,001-£25,000

Band C £25,001-£50,000

Band D £50,001-£100,000

Band E £100,001-£200,000

Band F over £200,001.

If permission has not been granted by any stakeholder for the budget band to be disclosed, this must be clearly stated within the submission.

Budget band must take into consideration total cost of the activity described in the entry – if you are including it in your tactical description then the full costs of that activity must be accounted for here.

Providing the budget band is essential, as it enables judges to assess the scale, ambition, innovation and delivery of the work in context. Failure to supply this information will seriously limit the judges’ ability to evaluate the entry fairly and may result in disqualification.

Entrants should note that impressive or impactful work is not dependent on budget size; judges will assess how effectively resources were used relative to the objectives, not the level of spend.

Situation Analysis, needs assessment and desired impact – 15 marks (300 words)

In this section you should show the judges how well you understood the situation at the start of the project, establishing a clear need for the initiative and the overall impact you intended to make.

Use this section/analysis to clearly lay out benchmark data that you will refer to in your measurement of effectiveness later.

Show the judges the best information, data and insights you have about uptake of health interventions, current practice, defining/segmenting audiences, identifying educational or information needs, which channels will best reach the audience, competitive environment, creative landscape etc. before the start of your work.

Objectives – 15 marks (250 words)

Describe the objectives for the project or programme including outputs (i.e., what materials/platforms are produced), out-takes (i.e., post-work evaluation, surveys showing changes in knowledge/understanding, social media/website engagement, sharing and commenting), and outcomes (e.g. changes in patient behaviour/outcomes, clinical practice or health policy; or internal changes in representation, retention, and cultural change) vs. benchmarks stated in the situational analysis. State how each key objective will be specifically measured.

Judges’ top tips

For those submitting work that focusses on inclusive communications that specifically target diverse communities, judges will be looking for the entry to show the meaningful involvement of communities or patient groups and metrics should include reach, representation and equity improvements for those communities.

Strategy – 15 marks (250 words)

    • Please outline the rationale behind the specific approach undertaken
    • Refer to the data and insights in the situation analysis section
    • Share any strategic considerations that were given to ensure stakeholder inclusivity, and sustainability in this initiative
    • Explain why this was the right strategy and any points to emphasise bold or innovative strategy selection.

Implementation – 15 marks (400 words)

    • Please describe how you implemented the project or programme
    • For a programme of work, please briefly outline why specific tactics were selected and how they supported the strategic approach
    • For work that targeted diverse communities, please show how you engaged the community in programme development and delivery.

Effectiveness Part One: Outputs and Outtakes vs Objectives – 10 marks (200 words)

To help the judges assess the strength of the evaluation, please describe how successful the project or programme was in terms of outputs and outtakes achieved versus the relevant measurements set in the Objectives section.

You may include comments from third-party stakeholders in this section but ONLY if they clearly help to demonstrate the impact of the work and were a pre-planned part of your measurement approach.

Effectiveness Part Two: Outcomes vs Objectives – 10 marks (200 words

To help the judges assess the strength of the evaluation, please describe how successful the project or programme was in terms of the outcomes achieved versus the relevant measurements set in the Objectives section.

Judges’ top tips

For work addressing health needs in underserved communities, evidence of community Impact such as positive outcomes for underserved communities, and changes in access, experience, health literacy, participation, trust or pathways.

Please include comments from community members / advocates in this section to help to demonstrate the impact of the work and community data that was a pre-planned part of your measurement approach.

For internal company initiatives, the judges appreciate that companies may be at different stages of their change journey and also that smaller, independent companies will be working at different scale from larger networked businesses. Measurement criteria in this area should consider including the following:

    • Workforce representation data (if appropriate)
    • Retention, progression and DEI engagement metrics
    • Evidence of culture change (e.g. role of ERGs, psychological safety indicators, leadership accountability mechanisms)
    • Information on pay gap data and DEI incentives for leadership
    • Sustained focus and investment into DEI and inclusive culture

Supporting Materials

Please only provide materials that demonstrate how you researched, planned, implemented, and measured your project or programme. Focus on evidence that supports your entry and aligns with the judging criteria.

Judging Process

The Judges may require shortlisted entrants to participate in an interview process. Further information will follow, if required.