A panel of well-respected judges assess the entries, paying particular attention to initiative and enterprise. The care of patients must also be paramount.

Each nomination is anonymized by someone not on the judging panel and then scored blind by at least three of the judges against a set of criteria specific to that award. The winner is simply whichever nominee achieves the highest total score in their category.

The 2011 judging panel was as follows:

Robert Becker
Macmillan Senior Lecturer in Palliative Care, Staffordshire University, Faculty of Health and Sciences, and Severn Hospice, Shropshire

Adrienne Betteley
End of Life Programme Manager, Macmillan Cancer Support

Donna Drew
Clinical Nurse Consultant, Paediatric Oncology/Palliative Care, Prince of Wales Children’s Hospital, New South Wales, Australia

Philip Larkin
Professor of Clinical Nursing (Palliative Care), School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems and Our Lady’s Hospice Limited, Health Sciences Centre, University College Dublin, Ireland

Craig Nicholson
Editor, International Journal of Palliative Nursing

Lindsay Wilkinson CBE
Head of Healthcare, Macmillan Cancer Support