Scottish Public Service Awards: Police Authority chair recognised for lifetime of service

The outgoing chair of the Scottish Police Authority Martyn Evans has won the Lifetime Achievement award at an annual ceremony celebrating public service.

Evans, who will step down from the SPA board in January, was just one of the recipients at the Scottish Public Service Awards, which took place in the Scottish Parliament.

Now in its eleventh year, the SPSAs are run by Holyrood Communications in partnership with both the Scottish Government and the parliament.

Evans, who joined the SPA board in 2018 before becoming its chair in 2021, has had a long and varied career within the voluntary and public sectors.

Before joining the SPA board, which holds the chief constable of Police Scotland to account, Evans was previously chief executive of the Carnegie UK Trust, an independent endowment foundation, and was director of the Scottish Consumer Council from 1998 to 2009. Before that, he was chief executive of Citizens Advice Scotland and director of the homelessness charity Shelter.

Presenting him with his award in the Scottish Parliament, justice secretary Angela Constance said Evans had “fundamentally changed, championed and been at the heart of Scottish public service” throughout his long career.

On his time at the Carnegie Trust, she said: “During this time, he built the Trust up to become a powerful and widely respected public policy organisation across the UK and, while there, was an early advocate for a wellbeing approach to government and the economy, leading the Trust in its groundbreaking ‘More than GDP’ work in the early 2010s and helping to change the debate about how we measure social progress in Scotland.”

Other winners included Rosemary Agnew, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, who picked up the Leadership Award. A partnership between the Linda Norgrove Foundation, the UK Government and the Scottish Government to resettle 19 Afghan female medical students won the Voluntary Sector Partnership Award.

Meanwhile, Glasgow City Council’s Martha’s Mammies project, which works with women whose children have been taken into care, received the Campbell Christie Public Service Reform Award.

A project to resettle 19 Afghan female medical students won the Voluntary Sector Partnership Award | Credit: Anna Moffat

Mandy Rhodes, managing director of Holyrood Communications, said: “We launched the Scottish Public Service Awards a decade ago, and it has gone from strength to strength ever since. These awards are a reminder of the excellent, often life-changing, work going on in Scotland’s public sector and the unsung heroes behind it.

“I was particularly pleased to see Martyn Evans receive recognition for a fantastic career helping to shape how public services are delivered. I’d like to congratulate all our winners and runners-up, and I look forward to next year’s event.”

Full list of winners and runners-up:

THE CAMPBELL CHRISTIE  
PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM AWARD 

[WINNER] 

Martha's Mammies 
Glasgow City Council 

[RUNNERS UP] 

National Improving Writing Programme - The Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative (in partnership with Education Scotland and Fife CYPIC) 

Peer Naloxone Project - Scottish Drugs Forum 

 

THE CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR AWARD 

[WINNER] 

Detect Cancer Earlier Marketing Campaign 
Scottish Government Communications 

[RUNNERS UP] 

16 Days of Activism Scotland - Improvement Service and National Violence Against Women Network  

Hello Dundee - Dundee City Council 

 

THE PROJECT AND PROGRAMME  
MANAGEMENT AWARD   
(in association with Association for Project Management) 

[WINNER] 

Tribunal Support Model Programme 
Children's Hearings Scotland 

[RUNNERS UP] 

A Warm Scottish Welcome - North Lanarkshire Ukrainian Resettlement Project  - North Lanarkshire Council 

Regional Prosperity Framework PMO - Capital City Partnership 

 

THE COMMERCIAL PARTNERSHIPS AWARD 

[WINNER] 

Scottish 4G Infill (S4GI) Programme  
Scottish Government and Scottish Futures Trust  

[RUNNERS UP] 

Intelligent Case Notes - Citizens Advice Scotland's Extra Help Unit (EHU) and HelpFirst 

Swiis Foster Care Scotland - Swiis Foster Care Scotland  

 

THE LEADERSHIP AWARD 

[WINNER] 

Rosemary Agnew 
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) 

[RUNNERS UP] 

Natasha Gilmour - Head of Extra Help Unit, Citizens Advice Scotland 

Yasmin Safder - Co-chair Scottish Government Muslim Network and Faith and Belief Network  

 

THE DIGITAL PUBLIC SERVICES AWARD  
(in association with Leidos) 

[WINNER] 

AI-driven voice assistant for Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) 
HelpFirst 

[RUNNERS UP] 

Scottish Government Design System - The Scottish Government Design System Team 

YouTube Health Shelf - NHS 24 AV team  

 

THE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AWARD  
(in association with LNER) 

[WINNER] 

Working For Wallacetown 
South Ayrshire Council (Community Planning Partnership) 

[RUNNERS UP] 

A Warm Scottish Welcome - North Lanarkshire Ukrainian Resettlement Project - North Lanarkshire Council 

The Change Centre Dundee (Street Soccer) - Police Scotland and Street Soccer Scotland 

 

THE CHAMPIONING DIVERSITY  
AND INCLUSION AWARD 

[WINNER] 

Creating a College of Sanctuary 
Dundee & Angus College 

[RUNNERS UP] 

Making Graduation Inclusive for All 
Fife College 

Tailored Jobs 
South Ayrshire Council (Thriving Communities - Employability) 

 

THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR PARTNERSHIP AWARD   
(in association with SCVO) 

[WINNER] 

Resettlement of 19 female medical students to Scotland 
Linda Norgrove Foundation, Scotland Office, and the Scottish Government 

[RUNNERS UP] 

CivTech & Citizens Advice Scotland 
CivTech & Citizens Advice Scotland  

Linlathen Local Fairness Initiative 
Dundee City Council and Brooksbank Centre and Services Dundee 

 

THE SUSTAINABILITY AWARD  
(in association with Vattenfall) 

[WINNER] 

AMIDS District Heating Network 
Renfrewshire Council - City Deal and Infrastructure Team  

Improving Inverclyde's environment through peatland restoration and tree planting 
Inverclyde Council 

 

[RUNNER UP] 

North Lanarkshire Low Carbon Learning 
North Lanarkshire Academies (NL Academies) and BE-ST  

 

THE POLICY INTO PRACTICE AWARD  

[WINNER] 

Surviving Suicidal Thoughts (SST) project 
NHS 24 and the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group Living and Lived Experience Panel 

[RUNNERS UP] 

Breastfeeding Friendly North Lanarkshire - Leading the Way in Driving Cultural Change 
North Lanarkshire Council 

Scottish 4G Infill (S4GI) programme 
Scottish Government and Scottish Futures Trust  

 

THE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD  

[WINNER] 

Martyn Evans