CYP Now Awards 2021: Winners revealed
Fiona Simpson
Friday, November 26, 2021
Winners of the Children & Young People Now Awards 2021 were revealed during a special virtual ceremony held on 25 November.
The big winner of the night was the London Borough of Waltham Forest which collected two awards for its work supporting children in care.
The local authority’s Language that Cares initiative has inspired department’s across Waltham Forest to adopt the use of language that makes children feel “cared for, valued and heard” over professional jargon which it says can be “dehumanising and disempowering”. The scheme, which has been developed over the last 12 months, won the Children in Care Award with judges describing it as an “essential” and “transformational” project.
Waltham Forest’s Corporate Parenting Team took home the council’s second accolade of the evening. The team was announced the winner of the Public Sector Children’s Team Award for their work on a campaign to boost foster carer numbers at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The coveted Children and Young People’s Charity Award was won by CHEXS for its work to alleviate the negative impact of the pandemic on families in the South East of England. As well as taking existing support online, the charity delivered food, loaned computers, checked in on vulnerable children and secured emergency funding to expand holiday provision and help destitute families keep their energy supply.
Sarah Woodcock, founder of the Kids Network, a mentoring scheme for eight- to 11-year-olds from disadvantaged families, was named Children and Young People’s Champion for her work to move programmes online during the pandemic.
The Children’s Achievement Award was won by Zaynab (ZeZe) Sohawon who is using her first-hand experience of young people’s mental health services to change the way provision is designed and delivered.
In his opening address to the virtual awards ceremony, Derren Hayes, editor of CYP Now, praised the work of practitioners across the children’s services sector for “going above and beyond what is expected” during the past year.
Noting the submission of more than 500 entries to this year’s awards, he said: “Every one of the finalists in this year’s CYP Now Awards have demonstrated the passion and commitment to improving children and young people’s lives and outcomes.”
The winners were announced by CYP Now Awards' host Alan Dedicoat, voice of Strictly Come Dancing.
This year's awards were sponsored by Thirtyone:eight, Halliwell, the National Youth Agency, Fastn and Phoenix.
They were watched online by hundreds of people, many of whom took to social media to congratulate the winners.
We are absolutely thrilled to have won the @cypnow Youth Work Award for our Youth Violence Intervention Programme🏆
— Redthread (@Redthreadyouth) November 25, 2021
Congratulations to all the other nominees too! https://t.co/Wjqaqg5alW
Congratulations to all those who were shortlisted for this year’s @CYPnow awards, and a huge congratulations to all that won in their categories this year! 👏 #CYPnowAwards#RelationshipsMatter #RelationshipAmbition pic.twitter.com/5H9mp9vjcZ
— Fastn (@fastn_org) November 25, 2021
Watch the awards ceremony here.
The full list of CYP Now Awards 2021 winning and highly commended entries are:
The Early Years Award
Winner: Ormiston Families – Small Steps Together
Highly commended: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea – Children’s Centres
Highly commended: Wirral Borough Council - Early Childhood Services (ECS)
The Play Award
Winner: Team Oasis – Fun Adventure and Play
Highly commended: Shiremoor Adventure Playground Trust
The Safeguarding Award sponsored by Thirtyone:eight
Winner: Medway Task Force – Safety in Action 2021
Highly commended: NSPCC Speak out. Stay safe. online programme
The Learning Award
Winner: Znaniye Foundation – Ealing Borough Free Online Summer School
Highly commended: halow project – Building Futures Programme
Highly commended: Youth Connect South West – Learning 4 Work
The Arts and Culture Award
Winner: In Harmony Opera North
Highly commended: Portsmouth Music Hub - Sound Minds, Portsmouth
The Youth Work Award sponsored by the National Youth Agency
Winner: Redthread – Youth Violence Intervention Programme (YVIP)
Highly commended: TAG Youth Club for Disabled Young People
The Youth Relationships Award sponsored by Fastn
Winner: StreetGames – Social Prescribing Youth Network (SPYN)
Highly commended: Family Rights Group – Lifelong Links
The Children and Young People’s Charity Award
Winner: CHEXS
Highly commended: Lifelites
Highly commended: West London Zone
The Young Carers Award
Winner: Aik Saath – Slough Young Carers Pandemic Response
Highly commended: Kool Carers South East Ltd in partnership with Essex Youth Service
The Mental Health and Wellbeing Award
Winner: Lincolnshire County Council & Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust – Future4Me Health Team
Highly commended: Khulisa – Face It
Highly commended: The Children’s Society – Safe Zones
Highly commended: Fast Forward – Scottish Gambling Education Hub
The Early Intervention Award
Winner: London Borough of Ealing – Building My Future Programme (BMF)
Highly commended: Manchester Youth Zone – Junior Choices
The Youth Volunteering and Social Action Award
Winner: NCS Trust – Gateshead Uniform Donation Project
The PSHE Education Award
Winner: TCES – LIFE Programme
Highly commended: Urmston Grammar School – Black & British
The Children in Care Award sponsored by Halliwell
Winner: London Borough of Waltham Forest – Language that Cares
The Family Support Award
Winner: Action for Children – Parent Talk
Highly commended: Spurgeons Children’s Charity – HMP Swaleside, Standford Hill and Elmley (The Sheppey Cluster)
The Leaving Care Award
Winner: Catch22 & The Children’s Society – Bright Light
The Advice and Guidance Award
Winner: University of Nottingham and Nottingham City Care Partnership for Small Steps Big Changes programme
Highly commended: Peace Child International – Work the Change Digital
The Youth Justice Award
Winner: The Skill Mill
Children and Young People’s Champion sponsored by Phoenix
Winner: Sarah Woodcock, The Kids Network
Highly commended: Jemma Cooke, The Haven Wolverhampton
The Recruitment and Professional Development Award
Winner: National Youth Agency – Routes to Success Programme
The Partnership Working Award
Winner: The Trust for Developing Communities – Brighton Streets
The Public Sector Children’s Team Award
Winner: London Borough of Waltham Forest – Corporate Parenting Team
Highly commended: Barnsley Children’s Speech and Language Therapy
The Children’s Achievement Award
Winner: Zaynab (ZeZe) Sohawon
Highly commended: Dinah Mandell
The Family Justice Award
Winner: Parenting Apart Programme (PAP)
Highly commended: Cafcass - Family Justice Young People’s Board (FJYPB)
