The Picker Experience Network Awards are the first and only awards programme to recognise best practice in patient experience across all facets of health and social care in the UK and from across the world.
The Picker Experience Network Awards are delivered by the Picker Experience Network (PEN). PEN’s vision is to create a unique platform and resource hub of best practice methods and models across the healthcare industry. Our goal is to lead a unique patient experience awards programme, which has a positive impact for all involved.
PEN is a ‘not-for profit’, membership based-network, which seeks to independently assist, advise, and provide expertise to those working towards positive patient experience.
The awards are completely independent and are not sponsored by, or affiliated with, large media partners. This gives us the unique advantage of being a free-thinking, independent body that can position itself separately from other healthcare awards, with highly valued judges who are experts in their field.
Organisations can nominate themselves, or be nominated, in one of more categories, and then will be entered into the judging process.
We’d love to hear from you if you have done something that has improved the experience of care – whether it is for patients, carers, families or staff. We have a wide range of categories to reflect the wide ranging work in this area. From large organisation-wide strategic initiatives to local more operational activities, from commissioning to providing the experience, from public engagement programmes to specific targeted actions there will be a category for your work.
Please note you can enter a project or initiative that has been submitted in a previous year, as long as it has progressed and subsequently you have new results to show. We love to hear how a story has developed and it can be really inspiring documenting a journey from humble beginnings to its successful completion, or ongoing.
All entries will be judged on their merit, irrelevant of the size of the project or initiative. There are standard judging criteria against which all entries will be scored and you can read those here.
Each year the categories are revised and refreshed to ensure they are still relevant and you can check out the Category Listings for 2025 here.
Hear from some of our 2024 winners here on what it means to win a PEN Award:
Judges will be assessing entries for the main categories using the following criteria. The criteria are worth bearing in mind when completing the entry form.
New Thinking
How is the initiative different, innovative and ambitious: what makes it different from previous practice/activities? Why does it stand out? Does it make you think “Why hasn’t this been done before?” Is it a new approach or new use for an ‘old’ idea? How does it exhibit fresh thinking in the organisation? What makes it different? How is it an example of a great idea (big or small) well executed?
Leadership
The quality of management and project leadership: this includes the clarity of the initiative’s objectives; how well they were communicated; how effectively the project was introduced and implemented; its planning and execution? How have they involved stakeholders, what learning have they experienced through the project, how have they talked problems? Leadership is also about resilience
Outcomes and Sustainability
Measuring Success: How has performance been measured and benchmarked, how successful was the project? How did it achieve its aims – or exceed them?
Impact on Patient Experience: How has patient (and/or staff) experience and service delivery improved or changed as a result of the initiative? What happened both intended and unintended?
Sustainability: How will the initiative make a sustainable, ongoing difference? How does it have longevity? What is the plan to sustain the work?
Involvement and Inclusion
Involvement: Who was involved ? How have patients/ carers/ family member/ colleagues/staff been involved (for example co-creation, co-production, steering groups, advisory groups etc)? At what stage were they involved – early, ongoing?
Inclusion: How inclusive has it been, for example has accessibility, ethnicity, proactively involving seldom heard voices etc. been considered? What has been done to address health inequalities and what have they learnt through this process?
Transferability and Dissemination
Transferability: How easily could the initiative be replicated in other parts of the organisation or transferred to other organisations, teams, specialities?
Sharing Good Practice: How effectively has the learning from the project been spread within the organisation and/ or throughout the healthcare sector as a whole?
If you are unsure of whether your initiative will meet the above criteria please feel free to have a chat with a member of our team. We will be happy to advise and assist you, or give you an idea of the most suitable category for your work. We are here to help all potential entrants; there is no question too big or too small.
If you do have any questions or would like to discuss how to enter please contact the team on 03333 44 7060 or awards@picker.org
Scoring Guidelines
Please note that all criteria have an equal weighting and are each scored out of 100. To achieve an optimum score for your entry please bear in mind the guidelines below which will be used by the judges.
| Rating | Description of How Well Entry Meets Criteria | Marks Available |
| Outstanding | Compelling, robust, fully evidenced description | 80 – 100 |
| Strong | Some compelling evidence, very good | 60 – 79 |
| Adequate | Good, above average, lots of evidence but not compelling | 40 – 59 |
| Limited | Some weak areas, would have benefited from more evidence | 20 – 39 |
| Weak | Unconvincing, weakly evidenced description | 0 – 19 |
Once you have decided that you would like to enter, and you have selected your chosen categories, please head to our PENNA Portal to register and make your submission.
Click here to go to the PENNA Portal and register.
If you need help with your submission, or you would like to hear from previous winners, judges and finalists, why don’t you watch back our short Webinar hosted by Picker; How to Prepare a Successful Entry. Click here to take a look.
To find out more about entering please contact the team on 03333 44 7060 or awards@picker.org
They can talk you through the process and the category options.
As a not for profit we charge organisations to enter and take part to cover our our costs. These fees are kept to a minimum wherever possible.
Fees for the Picker Experience Network Awards 2025 are as follows:
First Award Entry (Including 1 Place at Event): £199 + VAT
Subsequent Award Entries (Including 1 Place at Event): £169 + VAT
Additional Event Places (For Entrants): £199 + VAT
Additional Event Places (For Non- Entrants): £249 + VAT
Please note some categories are free to enter.
We have two Student Categories available that are both entirely free to enter.
Student Patient Experience Advocate of Tomorrow
This category is for student generated projects or proposals that are designed to improve patient or service user experience.
This category is for projects, proposals or charitable work, that have led to changes in practice placements, or within their local or international community. The project should illustrate the positive impact students can have by listening to what patients and service users need and developing a solution. Your project could be at an early or advanced stage or already implemented and showing results.
It is open to all students (at any stage) on any health, medical, social care or related programme of study.
Student Patient Experience Educator of Tomorrow
This category is for student led projects, designed to improve the skills and knowledge of others involved in patient or service user care delivery on any health, medical, social care or related programme of study.
The emphasis should be on transforming the learner experience of other students, with the longer-term goal of improving experience for patient and service users. Your project could be at an early or advanced stage or already implemented and showing results.
It is open to all students (at any stage) on any health, medical, social care or related programme of study.
Why should I enter?
To see the Student Submission Form questions before you decide to enter, please click here.
Every year before our submission deadline, we run a free webinar that gives you all the hints, tips and advice you may need to craft a successful entry.
You can register for free for this year’s webinar on Wednesday 30th April, 12:00 – 13:00 by clicking here.
You can watch last year’s webinar here: