A review of the literature on how the systems of support available to young people and their families work to prevent serious violence

Background 

This project is part of the wider Serious Violence Research Programme jointly led by the Youth Endowment Fund and the Department for Education.

The Serious Violence Research Programme aims to establish the evidence base to inform strategies to tackle serious youth violence. The project commissioned the Systems Evidence and Gap Map (2022; Systems Evidence and Gap Map | Youth Endowment Fund) which was the first step towards establishing this evidence base.

The Evidence and Gap Map aimed to identify and map the literature about how systems of support in the UK and Ireland protect or expose children and young people to involvement in serious youth violence. It establishes the size and scope of the evidence base but doesn’t tell us what the evidence says.

The next step was to synthesise this evidence to understand how children and young people interact with systems of support and identify areas for further research– this is the focus of the current report. 

Key findings 

Barriers to system navigation and multi-agency coordination 

• Fragmented systems: Families struggle to navigate disjointed services with unclear care pathways. 

• Poor multi-agency Collaboration: Lack of shared agreements undermines coordination, leading to service collapses. 

• Transition gaps: Insufficient support for transitions (e.g., aging out of child services, secure settings to community) disrupts care. 

• Limited information sharing: Barriers in data sharing across authorities hamper coordinated care delivery. 

Personal and contextual factors affecting access 

• Neurodevelopmental disorders: Secure settings can exclude children with autism or learning disabilities. 

• Race and ethnicity: Poor understanding of Black children’s lived experiences impedes effective engagement; data on ethnicity is inconsistently captured. 

• Disability: Lack of training for practitioners leads to missed harm indicators and inadequate support for disabled children. 

• Language barriers: Complex service communication discourages engagement; limited support for non-English speakers. 

• Immigration and asylum: Families with no recourse to public funds depend on informal community support. 

• Age and gender: Risk factors for older children are often overlooked; gender stereotypes influence service provision. 

Facilitators of effective systems 

• Support navigators: Link workers enhance communication and access between families and services. 

• Clear pathways: Defined care pathways improve navigation for families and professionals. 

• Coordinated multi-Agency Responses: Joint agreements foster collaboration and strategic service delivery. 

• Holistic support models: Advocacy-based, trauma-informed, and child-first approaches improve engagement. 

Gaps in evidence 

• Limited research on transition management, violence reduction units, curriculum and attainment in education, and co-production in multi-sector systems. 

• Lack of evidence on how to implement long-term systemic change across services and support structures.