The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award appoints three new Trustees to help the charity reach two million young people by 2031

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) has today announced the appointment of three new Trustees to support its aim of reaching over two million young people across the UK by 2031.

Sir Richard Harpin, Julia Kinniburgh and Luke Sparkes have joined the DofE Board to oversee its five-year World Ready strategy. Launched earlier this year amid record numbers of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), the strategy aims to give more than two million young people a life-changing DofE experience and widen access to high-quality activities that prepare them for life and work.

Sir Richard, Julia and Luke join the Board during the charity’s 70th anniversary year, at a record-breaking time – with more than 589,000 young people doing their DofE in 2025/26 and participants giving more than six million hours of volunteering in their communities.

During the last five years, the DofE charity successfully hit its target of reaching 1.6 million young people, with a focus on supporting those who face the greatest barriers to participation. It launched ambitious projects to support more schools in the UK’s most deprived areas, community organisations, prisons and young offender institutions and further education colleges to run the DofE, and to open up participation to more young people with additional needs.

In the last year, 51,497 young people living in the UK’s most deprived areas (IMD 1-3), 95,644 young people from ethnic minority backgrounds and 32,267 with additional needs started a lifechanging DofE Award.

Sir Richard, an entrepreneur and author, founded home repairs company HomeServe with a £50,000 investment and turned it into a multi-billion-pound business. Today, Richard supports mid-size businesses to become enduring companies through his advisory and investment platforms. In 2025, Richard became a Sunday Times bestselling author with his book How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps.

In response to his appointment, Sir Richard Harpin said: “I’m a great believer that the DofE can help young people to start out in successful careers, in whatever they choose to do in life. My entrepreneurial journey was not a smooth one – there were many bumps in the road – but I believe that if you’ve got a passionate team, you can achieve more than you ever thought possible. My own three kids got a lot out of the Volunteering and Expedition sections of the DofE. My focus for our next strategic period will be on raising funds to remove some of the financial barriers for young people living in deprived areas, to ensure that there are opportunities for all young people to access the Award.”

As the current Director General for Schools Group in the Department for Education, Julia Kinniburgh brings a wealth of experience from government and the education sector, having held senior roles in the Home Office, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, as well as in the emergency services.

Julia said: “I am focused on ensuring that every young person can be successful – and I see the DofE Award as being pivotal in enabling young people to develop skills and resilience which can be invaluable in their lives. I am firmly committed to extending access to the Award to give all young people this opportunity.”

Luke Sparkes leads Dixons Academies Trust, one of the North’s largest and most complex school trusts, spanning 20 schools and a college across Leeds, Bradford, Greater Manchester and Liverpool. He also sits on the boards of UCAS, Teach First, the Knight-Stokes Cup and the Confederation of School Trusts.

Luke said: “I’ve dedicated my career to a single belief: that a young person’s background should not determine their future. As the founding principal of Dixon’s Trinity Academy in Bradford, I saw what is possible when young people are given the right culture, opportunities and belief. Under my leadership, Dixons Trinity was ranked first in the country for the progress of low-income students. For almost a decade, I’ve worked across our trust to apply those principles in some of the North’s most underserved communities. I want to bring that experience to the DofE and help many more young people build the skills, self-determination and lifelong belief to shape their own futures.”

Tanni, Baroness Grey-Thompson, Chair of the DofE’s Board of Trustees, said: “I’m delighted that Richard, Julia and Luke – and the invaluable experience they bring with them – are joining the Board to help the charity give all young people the chance to do their DofE and expand access to meaningful enrichment opportunities

“This generation of young people are engaged, compassionate and hopeful. But they’re also facing an uncertain future, with rising mental health issues, a NEET crisis and deepening inequalities – which means the importance of opportunities like the DofE has never been greater. Through our ambitious strategy, we are determined to support as many young people as possible to build the skills they need to make them work and world ready for the future.”

Alongside Baroness Grey-Thompson, Richard, Julia and Luke will join HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, Polly Williams, Rob Shuter, Anna Rose Barker MBE, Ofei Kwafo-Akoto, Roisin Currie CBE and Emma Watford on the DofE Board of Trustees.