Hertfordshire based Emily Aklan has been recognised as one of this year’s most exceptional women in business at the second annual Great British Businesswoman Awards. Emily, CEOat Serenity Welfare was honoured as Social Enterprise Businesswoman of the Year.
Emily is one of the UK’s leading children’s rights campaigners. After discovering the appalling way children in care were treated when her nieces narrowly escaped the care system six years ago, Emily devoted herself to helping the UK’s vulnerable children.
As part of her work, Emily founded Serenity Welfare in 2016 after being horrified to discover that children in care – some as young as 10-years-old – were being transported from care home to care home or picked up from police stations in handcuffs and sometimes with their feet tied. It is her experience of witnessing the challenges within the care, justice and health systems, and the changes that need to be made, that led Emily to conduct research on the life outcomes of children in care and launch a new campaign to end the handcuffing of vulnerable children and young people in care.
It is her work in founding Serenity Welfare, campaigning for legal change and providing children in care with alternative transport that does not restrain children under any circumstances, that led to Emily winning the Social Enterprise category.
The programme launched in 2021 to recognise the growing number of trailblazing women in business leadership and entrepreneurship, champion their peers and advocates, and inspire the next generation of businesswomen.
In 2021, over 140,000 female-founded companies were established, a figure that is growing by a third every year, and the number of women in leadership positions in FTSE 100 companies increased to 32.5%, from 30.6% in 2020. It’s thought that this increase in representation of women in business could unlock a huge amount of economic potential, especially as the trajectory continues.
The final took place at De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in London as the awards was held in person for the first time, after coronavirus meant the first ever ceremony was held online.
Emily said: “It is a major honour to receive this award in the Social Enterprise category. I am thrilled to have been acknowledged by the British Businesswoman of the Year Awards, not least because it can help shine a light on my campaigning work to end the brutal practice of handcuffing innocent children in care. I have always believed that social justice has an important role in business, and it’s wonderful to have that recognised. I must also pay tribute to the incredible Serenity Welfare team – this award, and indeed all the work we do, is above all a team effort.”
Emily is among 21 business women, teams and organisations who went home with prizes, with the overall Great British Businesswoman of the Year award going to Beth Knight, Amazon in the Community Leader for Europe, whose work surrounds building a better working world for women.
The programme was founded by the team behind the Great British Entrepreneur Awards in 2021, who had been blown away by the increasing volume and quality of applications to the prestigious awards series by women in previous years.
The winners were selected by a panel of expert judges from companies including Burberry, easyJet, WarnerMedia, Cabinet Office, Greggs and Heathrow Airport, who all have their own vast experience working within diversity and inclusion.
The Great British Businesswoman Awards were founded by Francesca James, who said that the showcased winners would play an important role in inspiring others: “It has been a great honour to highlight the commendable stories of the winners, not only because they thoroughly deserve to be applauded for their tenacity and leadership, but because the value of positive female role models and male allies in business cannot be underestimated.
“Statistics show that the participation of women in business is on the rise, but we want to play a part in ensuring this continues by shining a light on the stories that will instil confidence in the next generation and make certain that no stories of success go unnoticed.
“Congratulations to our fantastic winners, not only for your awards, but for the important work you are doing to lead and innovate your industries.”
Full list of winners:
Banking & Finance Businesswoman of the Year: Natasha Frangos, Partner, Head of Corporate, Haysmacintyre LLP
Construction Businesswoman of the Year: Gauri Talathi-Lamb, Co-Founder, Iolas Capital
Consumer Goods Businesswoman of the Year: Martha Keith, Founder & CEO, Martha Brook
Creative Industries Businesswoman of the Year: Lucy McCarraher, Founder, Rethink Press
Engineering & Manufacturing Businesswoman of the Year: Samidha Anand, Engineering Manager, Caterpillar
Entrepreneurial Businesswoman of the Year: Lizzie Carter, Founder, Only Curls Ltd
Food & Drink Businesswoman of the Year: Joyce De Hass & Raissa De Hass, Co-Founders, Double Dutch Drinks
Social Enterprise Businesswoman of the Year: Emily Aklan, CEO, Serenity Welfare
Technology Businesswoman of the Year: Collette Allen, Chief Operating Officer, SmartSearch
Telecoms Businesswoman of the Year: Tejal Maniar, CEO, BT OnePhone Ltd
Transport & Logistics Businesswoman of the Year: Nancy Hobhouse, Head of ESG ,Evri
Utilities Businesswoman of the Year: Lisa Waterhouse, Diversity & Inclusion Manager, National Grid
Young Businesswoman of the Year: Laura Cooper-Jackson, Director, Industrial Signs Group
Rising Star Award: Krystle McGilvery, Founder, Mind Over Money
Gamechanger in Sport Award: Charlene Gravesande, Assistant Producer, Sky UK Limited
Team of the Year Award: PUMA UK&I
Role Model of the Year Award: Lucile Kamar, Head of Diversity and Inclusion, ITN
Diversity Award: OLIVER
Male Advocate of the Year Award: Conor Whelan, Chief Information Officer, Experian PLC
Female Ambassador of the Year: Beth Knight, Amazon in the Community Leader, Europe, Amazon
Great British Businesswoman of the Year: Beth Knight, Amazon in the Community Leader, Europe, Amazon
ENDS
For more information or to request an interview, please contact Poppy Kirby-Green at poppy.kirbygreen@whitehousecomms.com or 07507 268 149
EDITOR NOTES
Great British Businesswoman Series (GBBW)
Founded by the team behind the Great British Entrepreneur Awards and Fresh Business Thinking, the Great British Businesswoman Series is a friendly and diverse group of event organisers, journalists and community strategists with a wealth of experience in the business space within the United Kingdom.
It produces high-quality information, alongside virtual and physical events, for senior executives and professionals alike. Its content and conferences provide opportunities for business professionals to gain the latest insights, guidance and advice from industry experts, thought leaders and consultancies.
The Series looks at ways of changing statistics that show that women are underrepresented in senior corporate roles and that gender parity will not be achieved in many of our lifetimes.
GBBS is on a mission to bring together the great and the good of female business leaders to champion, celebrate and support the amazing women across the country who are changing the way that we live and work.
freshbusinessthinking.com/great-british-businesswoman-series/awards
About Hope Instead of Handcuffs:
Children and young people living in or on the edge of care often need to be transported between care settings, taken to school, hospital or court hearings. Local authorities regularly hire private secure transportation providers to carry out these journeys. Shockingly, many children find that they are automatically put in handcuffs by their transportation provider. A child does not need to be considered “high risk” to be put in handcuffs: a child who displays even the slightest sign of distress risks being subject to handcuffs or other forms of restraint.
To be clear, we are referring to innocent children in the UK’s care system being handcuffed by private organisations whilst being securely transported. Not children who have been involved or are suspected of being involved in criminal activity being handcuffed by police. We know that there is a deeply worrying prevalence of providers handcuffing or restraining children, with some organisations advertising that they use handcuffs on their website.
We can tell if a child has been handcuffed from the red marks left on the skin of their wrists. Stakeholders in this sector, including Ofsted, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and even the Department for Education are aware of private secure transportation providers using handcuffs on the children in their care, as well as of the lack of data collected on how often handcuffs are used. Data gaps put vulnerable children at risk. Worryingly, we do not know the scale of the problem. Secure transportation providers are not required to report any instances of handcuffing or restraint to the appropriate authority. The practice remains unregulated and unmonitored, and this data gap puts vulnerable children at risk.
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