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, CEO at 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.”
