Transformation in the Public Sector CGC Awards

9 Sep 2025 12:34 PM

techUK is proud to announce the launch of the Transformation in Public Sector Awards. These awards recognise and celebrate government programmes that harness digital innovation to deliver tangible benefits for UK citizens and public sector operations and foster good working relationships between industry and public sector stakeholders

Purpose of the Awards

The awards aim to:

• Shine a spotlight on outstanding digital initiatives within central government.
• Encourage knowledge sharing and best practice across departments.
• Motivate teams to pursue ambitious, citizen-centric and efficiency-driven projects.
• Showcase how digital transformation drives better public services and value for money
• Encourage positive and effective market engagement between government and suppliers to enable fair practice and dynamic collaboration. 

Celebration

Join us at the Building the Smarter State Conference 2026 to celebrate these achievements and drive the next wave of government digital transformation. Shortlisted nominee teams -- both suppliers and government departments – will be showcased on the techUK website and LinkedIn and celebrated by the CGC in recognition of their work.  All shortlisted nominees will receive free tickets to the Conference where the winners will be announced and awards distributed. 

Eligibility criteria and timeline

• Programmes or engagement sessions must have started after August 2024.
• techUK member suppliers, the government department or ALB are able to nominate a programme. 
• The programme must have reached a go-live status by 2 February 2026.
• Applications will open on 2 February 2026 and end 3 April. 

Application forms will be open on the website in February 2026. Please email ellie.huckle@techuk.org to register an interest so that the form will sent to you on the opening date. Please see the award categories below.

Award Categories

1. Citizen-Facing Technology Award
2. Back-Office Digital Transformation Award
3. Best Pre-Procurement Market Engagement
4. Best Strategic Market Engagement

1. Citizen-Facing Technology Award

This award celebrates a programme that has delivered innovative, user-friendly digital services directly to UK citizens.

Key focus areas:

• Accessibility and inclusivity, ensuring all citizen groups can use the service.
• Measurable improvements in satisfaction, uptake or time-to-service.
• Transparent, secure handling of citizen data.
• Evidence of co-design with end users and iterative improvement.

Example criteria:

• Demonstrable increase in digital adoption or reduction in manual processing.
• Clear feedback loops and agile delivery that responded to citizen needs.
• Integration with broader government digital platforms.

2. Back-Office Digital Transformation Award

This award recognises a programme that has modernised internal operations within a government department, delivering efficiency gains and better outcomes.

Key focus areas:

• Streamlined workflows through automation or system integration.
• Cost savings and resource optimisation.
• Enhanced data-driven decision making and reporting.
• Staff empowerment through modern tools and training.

Example criteria:

• Quantified reductions in processing times or error rates.
• Evidence of cultural change, up-skilling or agile working methods.
• Reusable components or services that can scale across departments.

3. Best Pre-Procurement Market Engagement

This award celebrates great market engagement exercises aligned to specific procurements. Maybe you undertook engagement ahead of procuring a framework, or for a programme/contract

Key focus areas:

• Early and clear communication of requirements to the market
• Engaged a diverse range of suppliers
• A 2-way dialogue, enabling suppliers to effectively provide input
  Efforts made to low barriers to entry and make the procurement as competitive as possible.

Example criteria:

• High number of suppliers engaged, and a diverse mix
• Evidence of receiving and adapting to input from market engagement ahead of the ITT launch
• A good number of competitive bids received

4. Best Strategic Market Engagement

This award celebrates engaging the market outside of the procurement cycle, recognising the value that warming up the markets brings in terms of improved outcomes across the board. Maybe you ran a strategic Supplier Day, or perhaps undertook some innovative capability discovery to understand where tech is heading and the art of the possible.

Key focus areas:

• Communicating high level demand signals and strategic priorities to the market
• Sharing strategic roadmaps and commercial pipelines
• Engaging wider part of your department/ALB
• Building trust with the market and fostering  a partnering mindset with the supply base

Example criteria:

• Number of Participating suppliers
• Supplier feedback
• Evidence of bringing in other parts of your department
• Evidence of engaging next steps