- OBE for services to equality
- Queen’s Birthday Honours 2009
- Honorary Doctor of Letters, Salford University
- Honorary Doctor of Letters, Oxford Brookes University
- Honorary Doctor of Letters, Open University
- Simon Fellowship, Manchester University
- Wigan Pier Revisited, Cheltenham Literature Festival Prize 1984
- The Iron Ladies, Fawcett Society Prize
- Campaigning Journalist of the Year, 300 Group
- Listen to the Children, Dispatches documentary, Independent Television Producers First Time Producers Award