Award-winning work with children

The Children & Young People Now Awards showcase exceptional work across services for children, young people and families.

The Awards cover a wide range of categories including safeguarding, early help, youth work, youth justice, family support, health, arts and culture and work with young people in care.

Since their inception, they have become the gold standard for everyone working with disadvantaged children, young people and families.

Last year we received more than 500 entries from organisations, teams and individuals across the 24 categories.

Many of these entries highlighted the innovations made to maintain services and adapt projects during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The CYP Now Awards 2022 are now open. See www.cypnowawards.com for information about the Awards categories, how to enter and the gala Awards ceremony.

As the search for this year’s winners gets under way, we profile four of the projects that won awards in 2021.

INCLUSIVE ACTIVITIES FOR FAMILIES

TEAM OASIS

• Winner The Play Award

• Run by Team Oasis board of trustees

• Aim To create an environment where children and young people of all abilities, and their families, can live, share, play, learn and socialise

• Funding About £230,000 per year from trusts, foundations and fundraising

• What the judges said “They have created a truly inclusive environment where children, young people and their families can thrive,” said judge Catherine Knowles.

Established in 2003, we deliver a wide range of totally inclusive activities seven days a week for 50 weeks each year. More than 300 children and young people attend each week.

The vast majority take place at our Happy Days activity centre in Toxteth, Liverpool – one of the most deprived communities in the UK. All children and young people attending Team Oasis would be described as living in poverty and half have special needs, disabilities or mental health issues.

Over the past year, three children’s centres and youth centres in our area have closed permanently or dropped all youth activities. This leaves Team Oasis as virtually the only safe place for our young people to meet, play and learn. Our programme of activities includes arts, sport, parent and toddler groups, after-school clubs, youth groups, day trips, holidays and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Changes in universal credit have placed additional strain on our families. To ensure families could continue attending, we decided to stop charging for sessions. With everyone facing huge increases in the cost of living, we will continue to offer free sessions for at least the first six months of 2022.

Team Oasis is now one of the largest providers of free food to our community. We are also introducing a free breakfast club for pupils from local schools.

Winning the CYP Now award has helped us gain additional funding. We recently received a large donation for a new minibus, new caravan for respite breaks, improvements to our centre and digital media equipment.

We have big plans for 2022 including delivering our largest-ever holiday clubs, which will welcome about 30 children each day, and introducing activities and projects specifically for children and young people with special educational needs.

By Paul Nilson, manager, Team Oasis

MEET THE PRACTITIONER

Ricky Liu, sports development manager

"I started volunteering at Team Oasis in 2018, helping with digital media sessions. Before I joined the project I thought it was simply about providing fun activities for kids but I discovered it was so much more. Inclusion is not just a word for Team Oasis, it is a way of life. The team believes in the potential of every person, regardless of ability. I was volunteering throughout the pandemic and was recently offered the post of sports development manager, drawing on my lifelong love of sport. I’m honoured to work with such wonderful, talented and caring people."

VIRTUAL LESSONS HELP KEEP YOUNG PEOPLE SAFE

SAFETY IN ACTION

• Winner The Safeguarding Award

• Run by The Medway Task Force – a multi-agency team consisting of Kent Police, Medway Council, Department of Work and Pensions, Kent Fire and Rescue Service, immigration services and Victim Support

• Aim To teach young people different aspects of safety in a fun way

• Funding Approximately £12,000 to £14,000 per year – including set-up costs – from the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner via Medway Community Safety Partnership

• What the judges said Steve Reddy, director of children and young people’s services, Liverpool City Council, said the judges were impressed with “the very clear vision and the scale of the impact based on the resources involved”.

Safety in Action is an exciting way of educating young people about different aspects of safety.

During the Covid-19 pandemic we weren’t able to deliver face-to-face events so we developed a virtual Safety in Action programme to ensure Medway’s young people didn’t miss out on learning vital safety lessons.

Creating a virtual programme came with many challenges including working around lockdowns and filming pre-recorded elements but we were able to overcome these obstacles and create a programme we are proud of.

Focusing on five main themes: fire safety, road safety, internet safety, water safety and personal safety, the Medway Task Force worked with a number of agencies to develop live sessions and a safety booklet to reinforce learning.

The agencies involved included Medway Council, Kent Police, Kent Fire and Rescue Service, the Royal National Lifeboat Institute, the coastguard, Kent and Medway Violence Reduction Unit and Crimestoppers’ youth initiative Fearless.

The live sessions featured a mixture of presentations, interactive activities, pre-recorded videos and question and answer sessions and was fully inclusive, offering music and art activities in special schools. The programme was aimed at year 6 pupils to help with their transition to secondary school as this is when young people gain greater independence and could be exposed to increased risks.

We distributed more than 3,500 booklets to every year 6 pupil in Medway, 22 schools signed up for the live sessions and more than 1,200 children took part.

Creating the virtual Safety in Action scheme helped us reach a larger audience and all schools and home educated pupils were also able to take part. More than 40 schools are taking part in 2022.

We received some very positive feedback from teachers and pupils and it was clear the children benefited from the safety messages.

Children enjoyed the sessions so much that a number of schools asked us to increase the length of the programme so we increased this year’s sessions to one hour.

Other benefits schools have highlighted include not needing to take pupils off timetable for long periods, the fact there is no travel time or travel expenses and experts and professionals from across the country can take part.

Pupils told us they talked about what they had learned from Safety in Action with each other and discussed it with their families. If Safety in Action means young people are going home and asking their parents to check their smoke alarms, then it is clearly having the impact we wanted.

There are some challenges for the future including longer-term funding streams. However, the programme will require less funding going forward following the initial set up costs.

It is vital to keep the programme up to date and we have created new worksheets and games for 2022.

Winning the 2021 CYP Now Award for safeguarding has given us the confidence and determination to explore further opportunities with face-to-face elements and wider work within community safety now being developed.

The Safety in Action programme supports Medway’s aspiration to become a child-friendly city, putting children and young people at the heart of everything we do.

By Sharon Adley, Medway Task Force lead officer, Kent Police

MEET THE PRACTITIONER

Hannah Rourke, community safety analyst, Medway Council

"I have managed the Safety in Action project from its inception, contacting partner agencies to encourage their involvement, planning the content, working on the booklet design as well as co-presenting the live sessions. I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of creating something from scratch and seeing it grow and develop. It has been a privilege to work with many great professionals and as a team we have been able to achieve so much despite the challenges of the pandemic. Reading feedback from the schools and pupils and seeing how much they have learned has been incredibly important as it makes all the hard work even more worthwhile."

WORKING TOGETHER TO REDUCE VIOLENT CRIME

BRIGHTON STREETS

• Winner The Partnership Working Award

• Run by The Trust for Developing Communities (TDC) and partners

• Aim To use street-based youth work to engage young people at risk of involvement in violence

• Funding £75,000 per year from Sussex Violence Reduction Partnership

• What the judges said “The project has worked with an impressive number of disengaged young people across Brighton in the last 18 months, building the relationships that will make a real difference to their lives,” said judge Matthew Gordon, managing director, The Care Leaver Covenant.

Knife crime in Brighton & Hove had more than doubled since 2012/13. Between 2017/18 and 2018/19 there was a 35 per cent jump and a 200 per cent increase in homicides. Youth workers knew we had a role to play in tackling the problem.

A contextual safeguarding conference in 2019 brought frontline youth workers together and we looked at the data; 67 per cent of serious violent crime occurred in a public place with an average of one stabbing per week in the city.

We needed a co-ordinated, city-wide, youth work project to reduce harm to young people and their families.

The Trust for Developing Communities (TDC) led and submitted a bid to the Youth Endowment Fund, only to be told the evidence base for detached youth work was not strong enough. While this was disappointing, we were undeterred, and when the Sussex Violence Reduction Partnership put out a call for potential interventions, we were ready.

Brighton Streets is about using youth work to prevent violence and harm by building relationships with young people at risk. This public health approach creates a safety net of trusted adults in public places and led to a reduction in serious violent crime. One life saved equates to a £1m saving to the public purse but an entire world to that individual and their loved ones. We achieved this through young people-centred delivery, high-quality training and support for youth workers, and strong, effective local partnerships.

The core offer sees six detached sessions per week delivered across the city by three experienced youth work organisations: TDC, the Hangleton & Knoll Project and Tarner Community Project. While we each had a track record of delivering youth work in our areas, for the first time we could look at the city as a whole and be responsive to emerging issues and needs on the streets. We also were able to build in a comprehensive cross-sector training programme from experts in the field and the Federation for Detached Youth Work.

Brighton Streets gives us the capacity to be present in strategically significant spaces. This has raised the profile of youth work and we have become a critical player in a range of initiatives across the city, contributing to solutions that hadn’t been considered before. Youth work is now present in joint strategic needs assessments, strategic management boards, Covid response meetings, Ofsted assessments, social work strategy meetings and more.

Our seat at the table helped us to gain support from key figures including the chief superintendent of Sussex Police and Brighton & Hove City Council’s director of children’s services. This meant that when we asked for key worker status for youth workers early in the pandemic, it was granted while other areas had to wait. This meant reaching more than 1,000 additional at-risk young people sooner.

Brighton Streets has undergone two independent evaluations that both found our approach to be effective. An evaluation by the Centre for Education and Youth, published in May 2021, found “a clear and plausible causal link between youth workers’ support and a reduction in young people’s involvement in negative, risky and potentially violent behaviour”.

“I hugely value the work of the Brighton Streets,” says Deb Austin, director of children’s services at Brighton and Hove City Council. “Their creativity and responsiveness, particularly during the pandemic, has made a real difference for some of our city’s most vulnerable young people. They are always looking for solutions to improve outcomes and are a real asset to our city.”

By Adam Muirhead, director of youth work, Trust for Developing Communities

MEET THE PRACTITIONER

Georgina Grant-Mills, lead youth worker

"As a street-based youth worker, my job involves approaching groups of teenagers where they hang out and engaging with them, providing check-ins, support, and advice. We’re trustworthy, non-judgmental adults for a potentially vulnerable young person or group to connect with in a public place. I enjoy meeting diverse groups of young people and feeling we’ve made a difference. By charging their phones or providing snacks, we may have kept a young person safe while having discussions they can’t have elsewhere. Seeing a young person’s face light up when they spot us makes me feel proud and like we’re doing something right."


YOUNG PEOPLE LINK TO LIFE-CHANGING LOCAL SUPPORT

SOCIAL PRESCRIBING YOUTH NETWORK

• Winner The Youth Relationships Award

• Run by StreetGames

• Aim To link young people up with life-changing support in their local area

• Funding Part of StreetGames’ annual funding of £6.25m from grant funding and donations

• What the judges said Judge Hazel Williamson, chair of the Association of Youth Offending Team Managers, said it was a “great programme” that was “getting back to basics and rethinking how we should engage children and families”.

StreetGames harnesses the power of sport to create positive change in the lives of disadvantaged young people across the UK. Our work helps make young people and their communities healthier, safer and more successful.

Central to our success is our Doorstep Sport model, designed to engage children and young people in disadvantaged communities to take part in sport and physical activity, often for the first time in their lives.

In recent years, we have been the leading the way in the field of youth social prescribing that helps young people to find their way to local, wellbeing-boosting initiatives, with the help of a link worker or community navigator. Pilot projects in Brighton & Hove, Luton, Southampton and Sheffield, brought together multiple partners to create cost-effective programmes, co-designed with young people with their needs at the heart and offering tailored support to improve their mental and physical wellbeing.

Young people can be referred into the schemes via multiple routes – such as a GP, school or college, or child and adolescent mental health services – before a dedicated link worker helps them work out what they need and what’s available locally for them. This is likely to be a range of things and is entirely needs-led. Sport may be a part of it, but they could also be referred to housing advice, welfare support, counselling or volunteering opportunities.

In many communities across the country, youth social prescribing is now thriving and delivering fantastic results. StreetGames’ Social Prescribing Youth Network (SPYN) has been proud to play a leading role in helping expand this provision. Now with more than 1,000 members, SPYN is a network of experts and practitioners committed to supporting the growth of youth social prescribing so more children and young people can get the support they need. If we can catch young people who are struggling early on and connect them to community resources that support their wellbeing, we may be able to prevent things escalating and reduce the need for further intervention.

Moving forward, we plan to develop the model to ensure more young people get tailored support including working more closely with health partners. Over the next 10 years, StreetGames will be working towards a new vision of community sport, one where all young people can take part in sport and physical activity and where there is a year-round multi-sport offer available in every low-income, under-served community.

By Mark Lawrie, chief executive, StreetGames

MEET THE PRACTITIONER

Dawn Mitchell, mental health and youth social prescribing programme lead

"My role with StreetGames is to lead our mental health and social prescribing work, mainly across England, although we do work extensively in Wales. In 2017, StreetGames secured investment to test social prescribing for young people and through this work we, somewhat inadvertently, began to lead the field in this work. My biggest passion is connecting people. Young people identify as one of the loneliest groups in our population and it has been a privilege to highlight social prescribing as part of the solution. Since publishing our first research in 2020 we have taken the findings to as many audiences as possible. I have taken great heart from the fact all four of our original pilot sites have continued to develop their offer, ensuring a legacy far beyond our original aspirations."

The Children & Young People Now Awards 2022

The Children & Young People Now Awards 2022 is open for entries.

There are 24 Awards categories to enter this year, including a new Pandemic Response Award category which will recognise organisations that have made significant changes to how they work during the pandemic to better meet the needs of children and young people.

The deadline for entries is Friday 24 June and the winners will be unveiled at a glittering gala dinner and ceremony in London on Thursday 24 November.

The Awards, now in their 17th year, are an opportunity to highlight the outstanding work done by the children, young people and families sector and raise the profile of projects and initiatives among funders, policymakers and peers.

To enter the CYP Now Awards 2022, read the category criteria and find out about sponsorship opportunities go to the CYP Now Awards website:

www.cypnowawards.com