The Butler Trust
The Butler Trust was set up in 1985 by former prison governor, Rev Peter Timms OBE, and Veronica Linklater, later Baroness Linklater of Butterstone. It is named after Richard Austen Butler (RAB), later Lord Butler of Saffron Walden, and the Butler family have been closely involved with the Trust throughout.
As Home Secretary (from 1957 to 1962), RAB introduced a series of reforms to improve the management, care and rehabilitation of offenders. To further the scientific understanding of criminality, he set up the Home Office Research Unit, and helped set up the Cambridge Institute of Criminology. He also gave the go-ahead for Grendon, as the world’s first dedicated psychotherapeutic prison.
And the 1975 Butler Report (which RAB oversaw after leaving office) led to significant improvements in the management and care of offenders with a mental illness.
Annual Awards
The people working in UK custodial and community justice settings do truly extraordinary jobs; but they are largely hidden from view, and rarely get any thanks for what they do. Alongside its #HiddenHeroes campaign, which shines a light on the workforce as a whole, the Butler Trust Awards help give credit where it’s due to those who stand out even among their Hidden Hero colleagues.
The Butler Trust Awards are the only UK-wide awards specifically for people working in custodial and community justice settings, and are often described as the Oscars for the sector.
Launched in 1985 and presented each year by the Trust’s Patron, HRH The Princess Royal (Princess Anne) at an annual Award Ceremony, they are the original, and most prestigious, awards of their kind.
And beyond the Ceremony, the Trust’s Alumni Programme gives Award Winners and Commendees the chance to reflect on, and build upon, their achievements.
Who can I put forward and how?
The Awards are open to everyone working in UK prisons, probation, youth justice, and immigration detention – staff members, third-party employees and volunteers.
They are for people, not projects – the Hidden Heroes among Hidden Heroes.
Anyone can put someone forward for an Award and it’s not difficult to do. But please don’t leave it too late – nominations close at the end of June.
For more about the Awards, and who they’re for, check out the recent winners.
Just click on this link to make a nomination: Putting someone forward
The awards process
All completed nominations are reviewed by the Trust’s independent Awarding Panel, including current and former senior managers from across the sector, as well as Butler Trust Trustees.
To ensure a fair process with all nominations read in full and carefully considered, the judging process is thorough and, inevitably, takes time to complete. The Butler Trust normally announces the winners just before Christmas each year.
The Award Ceremony for both Award Winners and Commendees takes place the following March, and regardless of the outcome, the Trust writes to all our nominees to congratulate them on being put forward.
This ensures that everyone receives some form of recognition for their efforts in the increasingly stressful working environment which is the current criminal justice system.
So do try to nominate a colleague whose efforts you have noticed this year.
