Talking Transitions aims to improve children’s speech, language, and communication skills ready for their transition into school, as well as improving the transition process for children and families. Groups of providers identify speech, language, and communication issues in their own area, share and build on good practice, and create community-focused events that bridge the six-week summer holiday learning gap. Judge John Drew praised the project’s “city wide” approach and its “strong supporting evidence from a range of outcomes”.
Finalists
Blackpool Better Start, Speech Language and Communication Triage Panel
Havering Council, Children’s Centres
Live Music Now, Lullaby Project
Suffolk Council, Off To A Good Start
Different Planet Arts enriches the lives of people with learning difficulties and complex additional needs through accessible theatre and play activities. For example, the theatre show Wildheart takes place within an immersive multi-sensory multimedia space, themed on magical wild woods, with the audience joining performers and characters in an adventure. In the last year, Different Planet Arts also provided play opportunities for 900 children and young people through week-long residences at schools.
Finalist
Centre 404
Go Play Sandwell Partnership, Creative Academies Network
TAG Youth Club for Disabled Young People
Blackpool’s Better Start partnership worked with the For Baby’s Sake Trust to break the cycle of domestic abuse and support families to develop skills for resilience. For Baby’s Sake works with expectant co-parents with abuse in their relationship. Therapeutic support for each family member is offered alongside practical help to build life skills. Parents have seen improvements in their mental and emotional health, domestic abuse-related incidents have fallen, and the babies born to participants are achieving improved outcomes.
Finalists
Escapeline, Prevention of Exploitation by Criminal Gangs
Lawn Tennis Association, Safeguarding Team
The Children’s Society, Prevention Programme
Wolverhampton Council, Partnership Exploitation and Missing Hub
Sponsored by:
Aurora Hanley School supports pupils with autism and social communication difficulties, many of whom experience anxiety. Its Feel Good Friday project prepares pupils for success by raising aspirations, confidence, resilience and promoting positive mental health. On Friday afternoons, pupils choose from a range of leisure activities to participate in. These have included helping at an animal rescue farm project, film making with Staffordshire University, and a drama project with the New Vic theatre.
Highly Commended
The Hertfordshire Virtual School, The Gold Standard Strategy Meta-cognition Project
Finalist
OxEd & Assessment Ltd, Language Screen
Tag Youth Club for Disabled Young People
Sponsored by:
Local organisations in Edmonton have joined together to provide children and young people at risk of becoming involved in serious violence with inspirational experiences that lead to changes in their behaviour. Artists, musicians, and film-makers have delivered sessions, while three youth mentors conducted one-to-one and group sessions with young people. “An engaging and creative arts programme which has supported many young people because it is shaped around their concerns, interests and ambitions,” said judge Lib Peck.
Highly Commended
One-YMCA, Airplay
Finalists
Boathouse Youth Blackpool
Heathfield Junior School, Thrive Cricket Programme
Osmani Trust
Immediate Theatre’s programme uses drama and creative activities to support children and young people in Hackney to develop vital life skills. Youth theatre sessions, which run weekly and during school holidays, encourage team-working, communication, positive self-esteem, and resilience. During 2021/22, the programme engaged 102 regular participants plus 80 more in school holiday projects. Asked to rate their quality of life, participants showed an average increase from 4 out of 10 at the beginning, to 7 out of 10 at the end.
Finalists
Bollo Studios, Who are we? Navigating race, class and the city
OTR Bristol, Community Partnerships Fund
Peel Interactive, Gamechanger
Sheffield Care Leavers’ Union, Studio Orchestra Project
Brightside’s collaborative online mentoring scheme Bright Carers aimed to support young carers to raise their aspirations, consider a higher education degree and build confidence, hope and self-esteem. In partnership with others, Brightside paired young carers with trained mentors, matching 53 pupils in years 10 to 13 with professionals and higher education students. All young carers taking part said they got on well with their mentor, and 82 per cent said Bright Carers helped them decide what to do next.
Highly Commended
MYTIME Young Carers, Memory Making
No Limits delivers a youth work-led mental health model for children and young people who don’t meet the criteria for support from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services or who are on the waiting list. No Limits delivers preventative support at school drop-ins and from a city center youth hub. In the last year, three quarters of the 4,000 young people supported felt better about themselves, had found new coping strategies and were more positive about the future.
Highly Commended
Bloom, HeadStart Kernow and CAMHS
Finalists
Mind-works Surrey
Salus, Intensive Mentoring Service
The Rockinghorse Children’s Charity, Royal Alexandra Hospital, Brighton
Safer London worked with a group of young black men to dismantle barriers to improving emotional wellbeing through a community-based peer education project. Trained peer educators provided practical support strategies, critical thinking skills and effective signposting, as part of a five-week intervention. Within four months, a third of the group were offered paid employment within an established charity, and they are now developing as potential practitioners. “This is a truly inspiring piece of work,” said judge Mark Russell.
Finalists
Bromley Council Early Intervention and Family Support Service
Newcastle United Foundation
No Limits,
Wigan Engagement Centres
Wigan Youth Zone, Early Actions for Health and Wellbeing
Volunteer Peer Navigators and Peer Representatives are often the first people a young person coming to OTR interacts with. Their purpose is to start conversations around mental health and wellbeing at the organisation’s drop-in hubs, talk young people through the support available, and help them sign up to services. The volunteers are more relatable to young people and less clinical in their approach, reducing any potential power imbalance.
Finalists
Newcastle City Council, Youth Fund - Youth Panel
Participation People, Middlesbrough Young Researchers
Rotherham Young Inspectors
Sponsored by:
Each Cartrefi Clyd - or ‘Cosy Home’ - provides for no more than two children in care and is staffed by a small team of care workers. Children are supported to develop their talents and interests, build trusting relationships, participate in decisions related to life, learn to take responsibility for their possessions and to take pride in looking after their home. “The amount of assistance this project gives to those under its responsibility is huge and will help them grow into successful young adults,” said young judge Ivar Morganti.
Highly Commended
NYAS & Mad-lug, My Things Matter Campaign
Finalists
Leicestershire Council, My Books, My Story
The Risk of Online Sexual Abuse (Rosa) project aims to reduce online sexual harm between children and young people in the Glasgow area. Rosa worked with young people to redesign educational material to make it relevant to their online and offline lives, and with parents and carers to understand more about online harm. Over three years, the project worked directly with 68 young people who had used the internet to engage in behaviour that could be harmful to themselves or others.
Highly Commended
Kirton Primary School, Our High Street
Finalists
Coram Life Education & Scarf (Primary)
The Alcohol Education Trust, Talk About Alcohol Programme.
The Haven Wolverhampton, Men-gage/Empow-her
Restitute supports the parents, carers, children, partners and loved ones of anyone who has survived sexual abuse, domestic abuse, or other serious violence. Restitute offers a one-to-one support worker assigned to each family, practical support and therapeutic support for parents and siblings. Carers are helped to articulate their own needs and those of their family, and to work better with the professionals supporting their loved one. All of Restitute’s clients reported improved health and wellbeing, and financial security after receiving support.
Finalists
LEAP Enhanced Casework at The Gaia
Live Music Now, Lullaby Project
Parenting Apart Programme CIC
The Sleep Charity, Sleep Well Lincolnshire
Tom’s Trust, psychological support
Trafford Domestic Abuse Services, Harbour
The Breakthrough Programme supports care-experienced young people in their personal and professional development with tailored one-to-one advocacy and employability support. Young people get access to jobs and career paths - which helps them to become independent, both financially and personally - and to connect with each other to learn about their rights. Most young people taking part have remained in education, employment, or training, and nearly half have successfully engaged in a paid part-time job.
Finalists
Barnardo’s Manchester Care Experienced Service
Croydon Council and Croydon Worldwide Mission Fellowship, Esther Outreach
Rees Foundation, Cafés Project
Wolverhampton Council, Reach Leaving Care
Wolverhampton Council, Supported Accommodation
Childline’s website offers advice and guidance for children and young people, including interactive self-help tools, audio-visual content, games, and peer support. There is tailored content for young people in the LGBTQ+ community, while the ‘Report Remove’ tool helps children have sexualised images of themselves removed from the internet. The Childline website receives two million visits a year… the LGBTQ+ content received nearly 5,000 views in its first month… and in May 2022, the message board pages on sexuality were the site’s most visited.
Highly Commended
Hertfordshire Council, Young Pride in Herts
Lucy Faithfull Foundation, Inform Young People Programme
Finalists
Trafford Domestic Abuse Service, Harbour
YMCA Downslink Group, Brighton YAC
When the pandemic forced a pause in face-to-face activities, Team Oasis delivered sports equipment, arts and craft packs, games, clothes, and books to support the wellbeing of children and young people in a disadvantaged area of Liverpool. It also distributed free food through its centre and launched online resources focusing on dance, drama, film-making, football, and games. Judge Ivar Morganti praised Team Oasis’s “passion to help those in the community”.
Highly Commended
NSPCC Helpline and Childline
Wigan Youth Zone’s Covid-19 response
Finalists
Power2, Power2 Rediscover
Sandwell's Transition, Education Partnership Service
Suffolk County Council, Off to a Good Start
Victim Support, New Era Service
Wigan Youth Zone’s Covid-19 response
Sponsored by:
The Peer Support Navigator Network aims to include young people who have offended in the design and delivery of services that affect them, enabling them to deliver support services to their peers. Youth Ink’s work is led by people with lived experience of the criminal justice system and 80 per cent of its delivery team are young people with an offending past. Young people taking part have reported a rise in self-confidence, and improvements in leadership skills, physical and emotional wellbeing, and relationships.
Highly Commended
The Skill Mill
Finalists
No Limits, Next Steps Project
RSE For All
Salus, Serious Youth Violence Service
Wolverhampton YOT, Divert
Sponsored by:
Hackney Council set out to embed proactive anti-racist practice across the department as well as to influence wider partnerships. It developed anti-racist practice standards and action learning sets, ran an anti-racist podcast series and holds a monthly “Brave Space to talk about Racism” forum. A four-day anti-racism conference in May 2022 increased the knowledge of staff, with the proportion reporting a “good” or “excellent” understanding of the issues more than doubling after attending.
Highly Commended
Catch 22, Social Switch Project
Finalists
The Parenting Apart Programme
Sutton Local Safeguarding Children Partnership, Child Safeguarding Toolkit
The Children’s Society and British Transport Police, Operation Defiant Safeguarding Team
Torbay Council, Children’s Services Learning Academy
A Better Start Southend is a partnership of statutory, community and voluntary organisations working to make Southend-on-Sea the best place to have a child and raise a family. The partnership supports pregnant women and children up to the age of four in the most deprived parts of Southend. The Early Years Alliance has a central organising role in the partnership, which includes the local council, NHS trusts, Police, and University of Essex. Parents report increases in their knowledge, skills and confidence.
Finalists
Bloom, HeadStart Kernow and CAMHS
Investing in Children and Durham Council, Preventing Mental Health Admissions and the Rapid Response Service
Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Digital Innovation in Children's Mental Health Care
Participation People and Middlesborough Council, Middlesborough’s Big Takeover
Peel Interactive, Gamechanger
Rochdale Borough Council and HMR Clinical Commissioning Group have created a multi-agency alliance to improve support and outcomes for children and young people requiring Send support. The alliance worked with children and their families to create a set of outcomes to underpin its actions and developed minimum standards for early help services to reduce the burden on specialist therapies. More children are now receiving early help and more professionals are accessing specialist training. The team has reduced waiting times for autism diagnosis and commissioned three new peer-led projects.
High Commended
Coventry and Warwickshire F-Dac
Finalists
London Borough of Hillingdon, Adolescent Development Service
Surrey Council, User Voice and Participation Team
Wolverhampton Council, Co-production Team
Wolverhampton Council, Reach Leaving Care Team
Chloe is a member of the Greenwich Children in Care Councils. Her achievements include designing a training session for corporate parents to improve their awareness of the stereotypes that care-experienced young people face and developing workshops for the Junior Children in Care Council, to empower children to influence senior civic leaders. Chloe was also a leading voice of the group during the pandemic. “It is inspirational to see a care-experienced young person use their lived experiences to transform the futures of generations to come,” said judge Jaffer Ali Hussain.
Finalists
Kye Barton, Wolverhampton Council
Mimi Clarke, Tom’s Trust
Riley Akers, Tom’s Trust
Cath Pickles started Restitute to support families like hers, who are left with trying to cope with the devastating impact of abuse. Through Cath’s determination, Restitute has become a respected and consulted organisation. Her willingness to share her story and use it to illustrate how professionals should react is reducing risk, poor mental health, and social care involvement. “It takes special bravery to overcome a devastating family experience,” said judge Lib Peck. “Cath has shown that, alongside tenacity and diligence in shaping a valuable service for survivors and their families.”
Finalists
Mia Jayne Coombes, London Borough of Hillingdon
Terry Galloway, Care Leaver Offer Website
In the last year, Victim Support delivered 49 services for children and young people including those focusing on a specific crime such as domestic abuse, homicide, sexual violence, and hate crime, and programmes offering wider support. In 2021/22, Victim Support engaged with 23,000 children and young people, and provided high-quality direct support to 11,000. “This charity has a huge reach, and the specialist work with children and young people is clearly impactful at a local level as well as influencing national policy and practice,” said judge Alison O’Sullivan.
Highly Commended
PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide
Finalists
North East Young Dads and Lads Project CIO
Ormiston Families
The Haven Wolverhampton – Children and Young People’s Service