Final shortlist 2026

Ellie

Ellie has been a part of Youth Vocals for three years, ensuring young people’s voices shape the work and policies within East Sussex. She is a fantastic role model for other young people, having a natural and nurturing way of working with younger children and has shared her views with the children’s commissioner, the Family Rights Group and at Parliament. Ellie has also helped secure funding for projects, with staff recruitment and by running focus groups.

Gracie

Gracie began her journey volunteering at her local foodbank; this gave her the confidence to move onto becoming a Shared Lives ambassador. She is a passionate and determined young person with an unwavering commitment to making things better for care experienced young people, going above and beyond to change the system. Gracie has been an ambassador for the Shared Lives leaving-care programme for over eleven months, supporting over 130 young people with a disability in this time.

Katie

Katie is fun, strong–willed and very driven. As an ambassador for the Shared Lives young people leaving care programme she is always busy, representing and speaking up for disabled young people in foster care, delivering autism training and leading on events to raise the profile and awareness of Shared Lives. Katie has also set up a bowling group to encourage care–experienced young people to come together and socialise, acting as a peer network for each other.

Kitty

Kitty is passionate about making positive changes within social care in East Sussex. An example of this is helping to create a booklet for children when they find out they have a social worker, using her experience to answer some of the questions she would have had. Kitty is also having an impact at a national level, speaking at parliament, meeting with the children’s commissioner and working with the Family Rights Group.

Kyle

Kyle is a talented footballer, having played nationally for England at school, alongside regional and local teams. He is currently a peer researcher looking into the lived experience of mixed–heritage children growing up in kinship care. Kyle is passionate about improving the children’s social care system through mentoring others growing up in kinship care and being a young person’s advocate for change, speaking at policy roundtables, social work conferences and contributing to research.

Rey

Rey has a strong sense of compassion, is deeply passionate about supporting others, and has a desire to create positive change within her community and beyond. Through her dedication, leadership and advocacy she has made a significant and lasting impact on the lives of other care-experienced young people. For example, as part of the Care Leaver National Movement, she actively contributes to national discussions by sharing both good and bad practice.

Scarlet

Scarlet is an inspirational young person with a passion for dance and singing. She has been an ambassador for Care to Dance for many years, using her voice and experience to inspire other young people and to inform the practice of professionals, frequently speaking at a range of events. Alongside her advocacy work, Scarlet has taken on a leadership role as a dance teaching assistant for Care to Dance’s Leicester group.

Laura C, North Somerset

Laura demonstrates excellent social work leadership through a clear commitment to ethical practice, innovation and empowering both staff and children and families. One of her key strengths is her ability to inspire and develop others, investing in practitioners and supporting them to build their confidence. Laura has an unwavering commitment to children and young people, advocating for them at every level and transforming the system for the better along the way.

Laura D, Essex

Laura’s leadership is calm, purposeful and grounded in a deep commitment to improving outcomes for children and young people. She consistently uses data to understand what is happening in practice, using this to better support families, as well as to inform system improvement. Laura models resilience and integrity; she is always open to learning and continuous development and is collaborative in her work.

Nana, Redbridge

Nana encourages professional curiosity, creates psychologically safe spaces where social workers can reflect and grow, and has the ability to develop confident and resilient teams. His leadership style is calm, values-driven and solution-focused, with staff morale and retention improving under his management, alongside improved relationships with multi-agency partners. Nana fosters a culture where children’s voices are heard and represented in his team’s work.

Nadine Boyne, Social Work DISCovery

Social Work DISCovery is an innovative professional development platform centred on the SAVI framework (Self-Aware, Authentic, Valuing, Intentional), designed to support social workers to thrive, not just survive, in practice. By reframing wellbeing as a core professional competency, this approach strengthens self-awareness, enhances decision-making, and supports a more sustainable, impactful workforce for children and families.

Natasha Linford, Life Story Cards

Life Story Cards is a practice tool designed to transform life story work for children and young people with care experience. The cards provide a structured, child-centred framework enabling social workers to facilitate meaningful conversations about identity, history, resilience and emotional wellbeing. Early indicators show this innovation improves practitioner confidence, allows for more structured conversations and enhances child engagement.

Joe Briel, ReWired

ReWired is a social enterprise designed to address inequalities in access to the creative industries for young people with social care or youth justice involvement. ReWired provides paid, real-world placements in leading creative settings, with participants shadowing high-level creatives to build core skills which enable them to practice in the worlds of film, TV, music and live events. ReWired responds to rising levels of contextual harm and child criminal exploitation by creating credible, aspirational alternatives that enable young people to build skills safely, earn money, and ultimately, stay safe!

Florence Bili-Ogunbona, Impakt

Impakt is an advocacy-led model designed to address unlawful and disproportionate school exclusions, particularly affecting children with SEND, children from minoritised backgrounds and those with safeguarding or social care involvement. Impakt simplifies complex statutory guidance into accessible resources while equipping practitioners and volunteers with advocacy skills. This innovation combines early intervention, family empowerment and system engagement to prevent exclusion-related harm.

Shared Lives Care Leavers Programme

Care-experienced young people face a sharp drop in support at 18, increasing risks of homelessness, poor mental health, exploitation and social exclusion. This innovation extends relational, home-based support from age 16 and beyond 18, providing continuity, stability and belonging at a critical transition point. The Care Leavers Programme is the first of its kind to recognise the need for a focus on neurodiversity, autism, learning disability, mental health needs and complex trauma within the care leavers space and has supported 125 care-experienced young people to date.

Angelika, York

Angelika is a caring and compassionate social worker who is early on in her career and takes every opportunity to learn and develop her practice. She recognises the challenges families experience and approaches her work with empathy and curiosity. Angelika is a strong advocate for families, working alongside families, even when this is difficult and empowering and celebrating their success.

Anju, TACT

Anju is creative, empathetic and has a trauma-informed and deeply relational approach to her work. She champions meaningful engagement, empowering young people and families to shape the services around them and to feel heard, respected and central to every decision. Anju anchors her practice in strong values, a deep commitment to children’s rights and is a valued member of her team.

Kelly, Cafcass

Kelly is a role model of empathy, resilience and patience. She has a particular interest in advocating for babies and children with sensory needs and her innovative practice has inspired many of her colleagues to reconsider their own approaches. Kelly’s recent work with a premature baby is a clear example of their dedication to the children they work with and has been widely celebrated.

Morgan, Hertfordshire

Morgan has demonstrated outstanding social work practice, with a commitment to engaging the whole family. Working with a family who had experienced profound discrimination, she approached every challenge with sensitivity, determination and a strengths-based mindset. Morgan is able to hold both strengths and risks simultaneously, stay calm under pressure and has a thoughtful and ethical approach in all her work with children and young people.

Fostering and connected persons team, Kirklees

The fostering and connected persons team delivers high-quality support to foster carers and the children they care for in Kirklees. The team’s work has resulted in more stable placements, stronger matching processes and improved experiences for children entering or living within foster care. Each team member contributes their unique expertise and skills to create a service that is child-centred, collaborative and focused on continually improving for children and young people.

Northamptonshire Social Work Academy

The Northamptonshire Social Work Academy has supported over 350 newly qualified social workers (NQSW) over the last 11 years. Their experienced and knowledgeable team ensures NQSW at Northampton Children’s Trust have a high level of training, support and guidance, entering practice with high standards. This in turn means children and young people receive the best support, as practitioners are child-focused, their work is underpinned by a relational approach and standards, and they ensure the right support is provided at the right time.

Pre-birth social work team, Newcastle

The pre-birth team provide specialist help and support to expectant parents and their families. They have a strong ethos around the importance of parents being given every opportunity to demonstrate change and growth, with the aim of supporting them to be able to safely care for their babies. The team goes over and above to work with parents with great sensitivity and compassion, acknowledging the trauma many of them have experienced and including them in decision-making.

Together Reducing and Ending Exploitation in Shropshire

Together Reducing and Ending Exploitation in Shropshire brings together social workers, West Mercia Police, child exploitation charities, the NHS, schools and other agencies to help manage, coordinate and advocate for exploited children. The partnership has improved outcomes by enabling faster, joined-up responses that reduce escalation and harm. As a result, there has been reduced risk of children entering care and reduced escalation to statutory social work involvement through wrap-around support delivered in the community.

Pathways multi-agency partnership, Coventry

The Pathways multi-agency partnership was established to improve outcomes for children in care from age 15 to adulthood. By bringing together the Rees Foundation, psychologists, Lifelong Links, the National House Project, local authorities and Coram Voice, the programme creates a structured, trauma-informed pathway of wrap-around support. Through the programme, young people build their confidence, enhance their wellbeing, strengthen lifelong relationships and develop practical skills. Ultimately, young people involved report feeling heard, better prepared for independence and more optimistic about their futures.

Functional Family Therapy Extra Familial Harm

This partnership brings together Family Psychology Mutual, the University of Greenwich and the Youth Endowment Fund to deliver and evaluate an innovative, family-based model, Functional Family Therapy (FFT), for children at risk of extra-familial harm across Haringey, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets. The programme is delivered in close collaboration with local authority children’s social care, as FFT therapists work with families to strengthen relationships and to form a protective unit and safer base for children. This partnership is bridging the gap between research and practice, with over 300 families recruited to the study.

Intervention team, Cumberland

The Intervention team in Cumberland sits within the Youth Justice Service and works in a multi-agency capacity with; family help, children services, child exploitation, education and substance misuse teams to create a positive environment for children. Their work supports children who may not be in education, employment or training, helping them to gain practical skills in an engaging and strengths-based way, always ensuring the voice of the child is heard throughout. The team delivers a variety of sessions all created to ensure children are on the best path to a happy, healthy and offending free life.

Multi-Agency Child Protection team, Warrington

The Multi-Agency Child Protection team in Warrington brings together children’s social care, the police, education, health, probation service and the building attachment and bonds service. Set up in response to the Families First for Children reforms, this multi-agency partnership has improved information sharing and the overall response to families, ensuring children, young people and their families get the right support at the right time.