Awards have now run for 11 years

A partnership between the Linda Norgrove Foundation, the UK government and the Scottish government to resettle 19 Afghan female medical students has won a gong.

They won the Voluntary Sector Partnership Award at the annual Scottish Public Service Awards, which took place in the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations sponsored the category with chief executive Anna Fowlie, who was on the judging panel, presenting the award alongside Neil Gray MSP.

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.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) won the Digital Public Services Award for its AI-driven voice assistant.

The award of the night went to the Martyn Evans, the outgoing chair of the Scottish Police Authority, who won the Lifetime Achievement award.

Evans 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.

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.”