2025 Frontline Awards winners unveiled

The third annual Frontline Awards took place in London this week, celebrating excellence, innovation and leadership in children’s social work.

Prizes were awarded in seven categories, recognising high-quality practice along with young people making a difference in the sector.

Attendees included social workers, care leavers, children’s minister Janet Daby, safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, education select committee chair Helen Hayes and care experienced Olympian Fatima Whitbread.

‘An active champion in challenging discrimination’

This year, the outstanding contribution to children and families award was renamed in honour of the late Sue Williams, last year’s recipient and the brains behind the family safeguarding model.

The 2025 winner was Nimal Jude, head of practice development at evidence body Foundations and co-founder of the Anti-Racist Movement, a platform for black female social workers.

Frontline’s chief social worker, Lisa Hackett, described Nimal, who has over 25 years’ experience in children’s services, as “an advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion” who was deeply committed to educating the next generation of social workers.

“She is an active champion in challenging all forms of discrimination and ensuring that minority voices are heard and included, and feel they belong,” said Hackett.

“That’s probably one of her superpowers. She expertly opens up conversations and creates impactful spaces to hear people’s voices with grace, curiosity, and expertise.”

Reflecting on her win, Nimal said: “This is a moment for me where I can see 20 years of hard work, sweat and tears come to fruition and have confirmed that it has really meant something, not just for the families I serve but also for the community of social workers I work with on a daily basis.”

‘Think about what’s important to young people’

Coventry’s unaccompanied asylum-seeking children’s service was named team of the year for its dedication to young people, influence on policy, and advocacy.

“You don’t often get recognition, and the team works so hard – not just what’s in their contract, but going above and beyond,” said team manager Alexandra Capitani.

“We ask young people what they want and try to make that happen. Even with financial constraints, the team puts in their own extra time and money to try to make things happen.”

Alexandra urged social workers to be creative in their approach, have open conversations and celebrate young people’s cultures.

“Think about what’s important to young people, whether that’s the clothes they wear, having fun or celebrating important cultural events. Spend time with them,” she said.

“Obviously, [they] have been through a lot of trauma, and that’s something we have to support them with. But there’s so much more to talk about and learn together. It’s about getting to know them and building normal relationships, not just professional ones.”

One care leaver who joined the team for the awards ceremony commended its social workers for striving to understand their circumstances and find appropriate solutions.

‘I want to change the narrative about young people in care’

Felicity, winner of the young people award, with safeguarding minister Jess Philips (photo: Frontline)

There were three winners of Frontline’s award for young people – Chloe, Felicity and Iris.

Chloe, a mentor and advocate for care leavers, has worked to reform how language is used within Coventry’s children’s services.

“Believe it or not, when I started my journey, I was very quiet. But now I am a voice to be heard locally, nationally and on the ground even in Scotland,” they said.

“It’s the consistency. It’s the people who supported me, made me laugh when I needed it, and never gave up on me. I want to change the narrative about young people in care. My journey has just begun.”

Iris was praised as “determined, strong-willed and motivated” to change the system and be a voice for others facing similar challenges.

Felicity, a role model in her former children’s home, now uses her lived experience to support care leavers to build confidence and pursue their goals.

Approaching families with kindness

Jemma Vickers won the award for practice for her creative and empathetic work in Barnsley council’s children’s disability team. 

This included with a family where the father and children had significant learning disabilities, building trust where others had struggled and achieving strong outcomes.

The same father is now co-developing training with her to help other practitioners engage families with similar needs.

Jemma said: “This award means everything – not only for me and my team but also because disabled children’s teams can be overlooked in some areas. People don’t really understand what we do, and what we do is everything.”

Her advice to social workers was straightforward – approach families with kindness and take the time to understand both the children and the parents.

“Have a holistic approach and don’t go in thinking, ‘Well, this is because this parent’s not doing this’. It’s unpicking and understanding [their circumstances]. Does this parent have the capacity to do this?” she said.

“If they don’t, what can we do to work with them – providing training courses, support packages, respite – so that they feel equipped to support their child?”

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock

Do you have a colleague, mentor, or social work figure you can’t help but gush about?

Our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone within social work who has inspired you – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by filling in our nominations form with a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.

*Please note that, despite the need to provide your name and role, you or the nominee can be anonymous in the published entry*

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

Championing the needs of families and colleagues

Photo: Frontline

Kakoli Kumar, service manager at Westminster council’s children’s services, where she’s worked for over two decades, received the leadership award. She was praised for her empathy and deep understanding of local families along with her commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.

Frontline said her leadership was “defined by her commitment to making a positive impact and championing the needs of both families and colleagues”.

Other winners included the co-founder of social enterprise Why Care, Niketa Sanderson-Gillard, who won the innovation award for supporting local authorities to recruit diverse foster carers, and Mel Thompson, who was named participant of the year on Frontline’s Approach Social Work scheme.

Mel was described as “intelligent and compassionate”, creating a safe, supportive, and friendly space for families to speak openly and without fear.

The last winner of the night was care leaver and social worker Jonny, who won the fellowship award for developing new technologies to help practitioners in North Yorkshire.

‘Not many spaces celebrating social workers’

Frontline launched the awards in 2023 to mark the organisation’s ten-year anniversary.

Speaking about the scheme, Frontline chief executive Mary Jackson said: “There aren’t many spaces to really celebrate [social workers]. To get social workers and young people together in one place to celebrate the work and how it really can be transformational is a joyous thing to do.

“We know that [social work] is hard work. Conditions don’t always enable people to do their best work. I’m hoping the awards remind people of the profession’s power. When you have skilled, experienced social workers willing to help families, you’ll get good results.”