CYP Now Awards: Celebrating the best of 2016

The Grange Tower Bridge Hotel in central London played host to the 2016 Children & Young People Now Awards, as around 550 guests from across the UK attended the children's sector's celebratory night of the year. There were 22 category winners as well as six entries the judges deemed worthy of a high commendation.

Youth band the Croydon Steel Orchestra struck some appropriately upbeat notes with a selection of disco classics before giving way to the the TV presenter and entertainer Dave Benson Phillips, who was a brilliant compere for the awards ceremony.

Opening the evening's proceedings, CYP Now editor-in-chief Ravi Chandiramani said: "These awards started life 10 years ago this very week in 2006 - this is their eleventh staging. We are so proud they have become this wonderful celebration of the very best in achievement, ability and innovation right across the children's sector.

"The entry levels for this year's awards were as strong as ever and the standard gets better and better each year."

Among the winners was Barbara Bennett, a Surrey-based foster and respite carer of 50 years who has cared for about 300 children, and a worthy recipient of the Children and Young People's Champion Award. Other winners included Mermaids UK for the Charity Award; the New Horizons Youth Centre won the Youth Work Award; I CAN received the Early Intervention Award for its Early Talk Boost programme; and Cambridgeshire County Council's Voices Matter group emerged triumphant in the Children in Care category.

For full details of all the winners and to view more images from the ceremony, go to www.cypnowawards.com