Philip Lawrence Awards Network

All the entries we receive are read through and carefully considered by our judges. Each year a diverse mix of past winners join experts to judge the entries, reflecting the scheme’s ideals of putting young people at the heart of the process.

Regional finalists

The first stage of judging is to whittle down all the nominations and choose a shortlist of up to 30 regional finalists. These finalists are recognised and celebrated in their local area, as well as going though to the judging panel for the national awards. It’s a great achievement to make it to this stage.

The judging panel for this stage is entirely made up of past winners – who better to recognise which groups of young people are doing something special? They sure make that the entries are eligible, and score them based on the criteria. Although it’s a big task, being involved boosts the skills and confidence of the young people on the panel and its a great experience to mix and share their experiences and points of view. We’re grateful to them for their commitment to fairly assessing every entry and their skill at sniffing out that elusive x-factor.

Choosing the winners

The final judging panel is made up experts in the field and includes representatives from the Home Office, DSCF and past winners, chaired by Sir Trevor McDonald. They look through the shortlisted entries even more closely and decide which projects deserve a national award. It’s a tough decision and not without a certain amount of discussion and debate, but in the end the judges all agree on the winning projects.

Meet our Judges

Check back soon for details of the 2010 panel.

2009 first stage panel
This was a group of twelve young people, all previous winners. The projects represented were: from 2008: Think Focus, Canal Boat Adventure Project: Nessie Club and Dare 2B Different; from 2007: Youth Action, and from 2003: Castlehead High School Paired Reading Project and Kosovars in Barrow.

2009 final judging panel
Chaired by Sir Trevor McDonald
Frances Lawrence
Bledar Bujupi, Kosovars in Barrow
Hassan Adam, Youth Action
Donna Wilson, Castlehead High School Paired Reading Project
Katharine, Duchess of Kent
Godfrey Allen, Apex Trust
Professor Michael Worton, UCL
Liam Flynn, DCSF
Matthew Mitchell, Home Office
Joyce Moseley, Catch22
Ravi Chandiramani, Children & Young People Now