Results 2018

Young Mums Will Achieve is a project in Cornwall that helps young parents with complex needs to enter education, employment and training while boosting their parenting skills. It is a partnership between childcare provider Fit ‘N’ Fun Kids, Cornwall College and Cornwall Council. The college delivers weekly sessions leading to Level 1 qualifications. Fit ‘N’ Fun Kids delivers childcare on-site as well as parenting guidance, and the council provides transport and venues. The project has supported parents and their young children to thrive and to break the cycle of disadvantage and poverty

This scheme in Leeds allows residents to apply for Play Streets orders from the council to close off streets to traffic, creating safe places for children to play independently. There have been over 80 street closures so far this year. Residents say the whole street gets involved, neighbours socialise and children enjoy playing with each other. Since April residents have also received an orange wheelie bin full of play resources to help children make their own play in the street

The Youth Work Award

Winner: The Lowry - Youth Employability and Skills programme

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The Lowry is a major arts centre in Salford Quays that seeks to connect with young people through outreach work. Its Youth Employability and Skills programme has a proven record in engaging with those not in education, employment or training or at risk of becoming so. The programme is available to young people aged 13 and upwards and builds on the Lowry's varied repertoire to put on creative and work-based learning - from theatre and dance to comedy and visual art. The project reached 1,300 young people last year. Most report increased confidence and new skills and remain involved with the Lowry through its community programmes.

In a creative way to get children interested in maths, Kirton Primary School decided to build its own ‘High Street’ consisting of a bank, shop and market stall, all run by and for the children. The aim is to use realistic personal finance situations to motivate them to take ownership of their learning. The school serves a community of above average deprivation on the outskirts of Boston in Lincolnshire. The project has made a big impact on attainment. For the last two years, Kirton has been in the top two per cent of schools in England for progress in maths, reading and writing, and the top one per cent for disadvantaged children.

The cliquey world of film and TV is difficult to enter for young people from underprivileged backgrounds. This project is run by Worldbytes, a citizen TV station set up by the charity Worldwrite. It offers young people from deprived backgrounds free on-the-job training in TV and film work. They receive training in cameras, sound, lighting, interview technique, presenting and marketing. And they discover what it’s like to work as part of a team and how to make their ideas

This outstanding project reached young people with special educational needs and disabilities who would not otherwise be able to take part in the National Citizen Service. Many of these young people had never been away from home. The project reached 24 young people as well as their support workers, teachers, and parents and carers. Crucial to its success was the way it engaged with school staff and put in place detailed planning, meaning that every need was understood and each activity adapted to ensure full participation. Each young person made great strides physically, emotionally and socially.

The Young Carers Award

Winner: Carers Bucks - Same Chances

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The basic principle behind this project is that young people caring for a family member should be able to make the same life choices as their peers. The Same Chances programme starts with an initial assessment and an action plan that includes support from specialist services. Monthly life skills sessions cover emotional wellbeing, finances and employment. Social events and residential breaks are held to reduce isolation. In the two and a half years since it started, it has helped 172 young adult carers, with many supported to enter education and employment.

Queen's Park Primary School is based in the London borough of Westminster, which has pockets of deprivation and high levels of gang violence. The school uses a personalised curriculum underpinned by the idea of wellbeing. Staff and children are trained in understanding how different areas of the brain work and how and why people react to situations in certain ways. This whole-school approach has put the school in the top three per cent for progress in the country. Both children and staff have lower stress levels. Staff retention has improved and sickness absence has reduced, child attendance is up and referrals to outside agencies are down.

Charnwood in Leicestershire had a high rate of 16 and 17-year-olds who were homeless. Housing support charity The Bridge sought to provide young people with access to independent services and avoid crisis situations that lead to this plight. The Bridge set up the Talk2sort Mediation Service, to support young people with ways to resolve conflict; and the Single Access Point for those experiencing difficulties where they are living. The project also works with family members to improve relationships. In the year ending April 2018, the project supported 224 young people at risk, with a 100 per cent success in preventing homelessness.

The Diana Award’s mentoring programme pairs volunteer mentors with disengaged young people to give them an insight into the world of work. Mentors guide young people through group sessions over a six-month period. Mentors and mentees also work to develop a campaign around a social issue that affects their community. Since 2017 the project reached about 3,000 vulnerable people. 94 per cent of mentees felt they had gained skills that would be useful for their future career, while 98 per cent said they now had a better understanding of their own career ambition. 

Diana Award Programme has recognised the achievements of more than 48,000 young people.

The Children in Care Award

Winner: Sheffield Children in Care Council - The Placement Game

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Sheffield's Children in Care Council is made up of young people in care. The group set themselves the challenge to find out what those living in residential care homes thought made a good and bad placement. Once they had gathered this intelligence, they designed a board game - The Placement Game - to be used as a training tool. More than 500 foster carers and residential support workers have been trained and all staff will be by the end of the year. The film and toolkit is being marketed and sold nationally.

Hear2Change is a youth-led project which challenges the idea that violence against women and girls is somehow acceptable. The project is run by the charity Solace Women's Aid and operates in the north London boroughs of Haringey and Islington. Hear2Change educates young people on equality and violence and provides them with support to develop their own campaigns as community champions. It has reached about 2,700 young people through assemblies, educational programmes, campaigns and one-to-one support.

Staff at the Park Community School in Havant set up a community group to address the problem of food poverty in response to concerns that pupils were going hungry, The group duly set up the Munch programme in February 2017. It offers children who normally receive free school meals during term time a safe place to come and have a meal during the holidays. The project reduces isolation, helps those in need and keeps children safe. The children come from 34 different schools with an average attendance of 60 a day.

This mentoring project, founded in Glasgow, supports young people with experience of the care system to re-engage in education. The aim is to raise attainment, improve staying on rates, and lead to better outcomes in adulthood. It is delivered in all 30 secondary schools in Glasgow and overseen by a co-ordinator who delivers group work and matches young people with a mentor. In 2018, 86 per cent of mentored young people entered employment, further or higher education.

Kirton Primary School’s Learn and Earn project – which has also won this year’s Learning Award - saw the creation of its own High Street with a Bank, Shop and Market Stall. The aim was to kick-start rapid and extraordinary achievement for every child - no matter what their starting point. Standards have risen for progress in maths, reading and writing, with the school inundated with requests for advice from advisory boards across England and Wales. It has given presentations at headteachers’ briefings, and is in the process of becoming a Centre of Excellence to share its learning with many other schools.

Children in residential care are 15 times more likely to enter the criminal justice system than the average for all children. The Howard League set out to tackle this shocking statistic, by convincing all agencies to step up and prevent them entering the system. The campaign has reached hundreds of people and led to improvements in policy and practice across the board. Ofsted now collects data on police call-outs from children's homes. Police forces have improved data recording and practices, and children's homes are now starting to tackle the issue.

The social work career pathway has made a dramatic impact on the recruitment and retention of social workers in Leeds. It was introduced in 2012, two years after Ofsted gave a damning assessment of Leeds' service as inadequate.  The career pathway is available at any level, starting with students, with a focus in readiness to practice, up to strategic level to support aspiring heads of service. Leeds is now among the best performing authorities in terms of social work vacancies, staff turnover, and reliance on agency staff. More than 80 per cent of social work staff in Leeds have been qualified for two or more years.

The Safeguarding Award

Winner: The Children’s Society - Greater Manchester Missing Service

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When a child goes missing from care this Manchester project aims to work out what happened and why, and to provide intensive support to the young person. The initiative, funded by Manchester City Council, reached 216 young people in the last year. Once the child is found, staff from the Children's Society carry out the "return home" interview in such a way that young people do not feel they are being interrogated. Ninety-one per cent of young people said they felt safer after the project's intervention. Two thirds had completely stopped going missing after working with the project.

The Islington Integrated Gang Team was set up in 2016 to tackle rises in youth violence, child sexual exploitation and “county lines” operations where children are exploited to sell drugs. The multi-agency partnership comprises police officers, social workers, probation, a psychologist, victim support and third sector groups. It shares information to identify young people at risk of gang affiliation and supports them to start building a more positive life. The team reached more than 130 young people in the past year. Knife and gun crime went down in the area while 25 young people in the cohort had left gangs.

The Public Sector Children’s Team Award

Winner: Coventry City Council - Coventry Family Drug and Alcohol Court

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This inspiring project works hard to keep drug and alcohol-addicted parents and their children together. Instead of the traditional adversarial system, the Family Drug and Alcohol Court provides a problem-solving forum. It starts with an initial assessment of the family and a prognosis. The team produces a plan looking at abstinence, lifestyle, relationships and trauma. In the last year, it has reached 77 parents and 90 children. Research shows that the model is more likely to achieve family reunification than normal court proceedings. In Coventry, 50 per cent of cases result in children being reunified to one or both parents.

The Children and Young People’s Charity Award

Winner: The Children’s Sleep Charity

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Sleep deprivation in children is at crisis point. Over the last 10 years the numbers of children admitted to hospital with sleep issues has tripled. The Children's Sleep Charity supports families and young people to get a good night's sleep by identifying the root causes of sleep issues. It trains professionals to carry out sleep support in the community, and provides specialist help for families of children with ADHD and autism. Its Sleep Tight training course allows family support workers to run workshops across the country. Research has shown that children gained an extra 2.5 hours sleep per night once parents had attended the course.

Mia Thorne is a remarkable young person who campaigns for disabled people's rights in Wales. Aged just 11, she has already made a huge difference to many lives. Mia fought to make a local park near her home accessible to all children, and has influenced changes in the way disabled children in Wales receive support at school. She has raised £80,000 for Caudwell Children, which supports families with disabled children, and Dreams Come True, which helps children with life-limiting conditions to go on holiday or meet their hero. Mia has achieved all this while dealing with congenital hemiplegia, a form of cerebral palsy that affects her mobility and causes seizures.

Kathy Evans’ guiding philosophy has always been to "Change the world for children". Kathy is a fierce and fearless advocate for children and young people who challenges the status quo. She has successfully brought about significant changes to the law, to policy and to practice over 20 years of lobbying and campaigning, and has since April 2013 been chief executive of Children England. She has achieved all this by focusing on children, working with others, and fighting dogma and apathy. She has now set herself the task of redesigning the welfare state so that society works better for all children and young people.