Matt Tally named Unsung Hero at the 2026 Worcestershire Education Awards

Matt Tally, co-founder of Empowered Minds, has been named the winner of the Unsung Hero Award at the 2026 Worcestershire Education Awards. The award was announced at a black-tie ceremony at the Bank House Hotel on Thursday 26 March, where finalists, sponsors, and guests from across the county’s education community gathered for the eighth year of the awards.

About the award

The Worcestershire Education Awards are organised by Newsquest — publishers of the Worcester News, Malvern Gazette, Evesham Journal, Bromsgrove & Droitwich Advertiser, Redditch Advertiser, and Kidderminster Shuttle — in partnership with the University of Worcester. A panel of independent judges chooses a winner from a shortlist of three nominees in each of the twelve categories.

The Unsung Hero category recognises people whose work supporting young people happens largely out of public view: in classrooms, in corridors, in one-to-one sessions, and in the quiet conversations that don’t make it into school reports but change the trajectory of a pupil’s school life.

The other finalists

The other 2026 Unsung Hero finalists were Chelsea Hale from Stepping Stones Private Day Nursery and Kayleigh Keeling from N-ABLE. Anyone who has read the cases the judges considered will know how strong the shortlist was, and how much quiet work is happening in Worcestershire’s schools and early-years settings on behalf of pupils who need it most.

What this means for the work

Mentoring and alternative provision work properly when three things line up: a pupil who feels heard, school staff who back the placement, and a family who stays in the conversation. None of that is the mentor’s doing alone. The recognition belongs to the SENCos, headteachers, pastoral leads, and parents Empowered Minds works alongside every week — the people who refer pupils, share information, push for review meetings, and stay involved when the picture is complicated.

It also belongs to the pupils themselves. The young people Empowered Minds works with arrive with their own histories of school, and the trust they show by turning up to a first session — and then a second, and a tenth — is the thing the award is really about.

Read more

The full list of winners and finalists across all twelve categories is published by the Worcester News: Every winner at the Worcestershire Education Awards 2026.

If you’re a SENCo, headteacher, or pastoral lead in Worcestershire and would like to talk about mentoring, in-school support, or alternative provision for a pupil, you can get in touch with the Empowered Minds team here.