In Pictures: Children & Young People Now Awards 2012

The atmosphere was charged with excitement, emotion and - for the winners - utter elation. This year's Children & Young People Now Awards did not disappoint. Committed and talented practitioners from across the country, urban and rural, north and south, alongside figureheads from the children's sector, convened at the elegant Hurlingham Club in London, close to the banks of the Thames.

In a keynote address, children's minister Edward Timpson told the 520-strong throng: "I'm under no illusions about the pressures you face, but what I see here today makes me feel hugely optimistic."
He added: "My overriding focus is, and will be, on supporting children and young people so they can fulfil their potential whatever their backgrounds, and ensuring they are safe and well cared for."

CYP Now editor Ravi Chandiramani said: "Funding and resources to protect children and to develop their potential are getting more stretched, just as the needs of the most vulnerable in our society are getting ever greater. This makes the achievements of our finalists all the more remarkable."

The evening's most poignant moment came in a tribute to the late Julie Donaldson, who was highly commended in the Children and Young People's Champion category. Julie was a life coach on an Oxfordshire project getting disengaged young people to help build affordable homes. Most have gone on to apprenticeships and courses. Julie died just before the project ended. At their request, the completed housing site was named Donaldson Court in her honour.

Write-ups of all the winners' work are in a special CYP Now Awards 2012 supplement distributed with the 11 December edition of the magazine.