From frontline policing to prevention: Why evidence-informed policing matters for children

From 999 response to systems change

After 15 years as a Metropolitan Police Service officer, I joined the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) last year as Change Lead for Policing. During my policing career I worked in frontline 999 response, as a Youth Justice Officer and in organised crime. I also went on secondment to the College of Policing, contributing to national strategy development and behaviour change work.

Before policing, I worked as a corporate consultant and later in the charity sector. I moved into policing because I wanted to help people with everyday problems more directly. Whilst in policing, I was also a youth mentor with The King’s Trust and Voyage Youth where I focused on building social skills and navigating next steps. A consistent motivation throughout my career has been advocating for minoritised communities, particularly improving outcomes and opportunities for young people.

When the opportunity arose to return to the charity sector as YEF’s Change Lead for Policing, it felt like a natural full-circle moment. YEF’s mission to prevent children becoming involved in violence aligns closely with my experience in diversion and promoting positive pathways for young people.

Why policing plays a crucial role in preventing violence affecting children

Children who enter the criminal justice system are often among the most vulnerable in society. Contact with the police can provide an important opportunity to identify safeguarding needs and address underlying drivers of offending. Ensuring children receive appropriate support can reduce future harm and improve life chances. Handled well, it can:

• Identify safeguarding concerns
• Disrupt exploitation
• Divert children away from further harm
• Connect families to additional support

Handled poorly, it can entrench children deeper into the justice system.

Too often, exploited children – particularly those drawn into drug markets or serious violence – are treated primarily as offenders rather than victims. When we criminalise vulnerability, we increase the risk of long-term harm. This was powerfully illustrated in a recent episode of Safe, the new podcast series from YEF, where a young person (anonymously) shared their lived experiences of exploitation and reflected on the support they needed.

Importantly, YEF takes a multi-sector approach to safeguarding and support. Our work in policing is done collaboratively across our core sectors – youth justice, education, health, neighbourhoods, children’s services and the youth sector. This ensures we understand the critical role policing plays in multi-agency working to keep children safe from violence and crime.

How the YEF supports policing

If you’re involved in policing – whether as an officer, working in an OPCC or VRU – then we have a range of accessible resources to support your work. Here’s a summary of our key outputs:.

Our Violence Prevention Toolkit: a free, online resource that includes interventions such as focused deterrence, problem-oriented policing, diversion and hot spots policing. The evidence-base shows these interventions represent the best-bet approaches for policing to implement as they all have a high or moderate impact on reducing crime and violence.

Practice Guidance: we have also produced accompanying guidance reports on diversion and focused deterrence that provide evidence-informed recommendations about how to deliver these interventions well.

Self-assessment Tools: we have developed ORPIC, an online self-assessment tool for police forces to evaluate their area’s out of court resolution practice, which identifies strengths and areas for development and provides tailored recommendations. Note, YEF will be releasing more self-assessment tools for policing in 2026.

Children, Violence and Vulnerability (CVV): we releases annual CVV reports that draw on responses from the largest survey of young people’s experiences of violence. These reports give practitioners valuable insights into the views of young people and can help to inform better child-centred policing. See the CVV 2024 report about views on the police.

Safe: More recently, we have released new podcast episodes of Safe that feature researchers, practitioners, campaigners and young people discussing approaches to reducing violence, including an episode discussing focused deterrence (available 1 April 2026).

Partnerships: we also joined forces with the Society of Evidence Based Policing (SEBP) with a shared aim to help policing do more of what works. SEBP have developed a growing community of policing professionals who believe that better decisions come from considering the evidence on what works and what doesn’t. Their work includes conferences and events, implementation workshops, and a Digital Members Hub containing tools, resources and insights. You can sign up to the SEBP Members Hub here.

Tackling disproportionality and strengthening safeguarding

Addressing racial disproportionality in policing and the youth justice system is critical to building legitimacy and improving outcomes. My previous work as an EDI Advisor to the Mayor of London, and involvement in City Hall’s Disproportionality Board and Race Equity Roundtable, reinforced the importance of combining community voices with robust evidence.

Evidence-informed policing is not only about effectiveness — it’s also about fairness. By embedding diversion, safeguarding and partnership approaches grounded in evidence, forces can:

• Reduce reoffending
• Improve trust and legitimacy
• Strengthen outcomes for vulnerable children
• Use resources more effectively

We have a strong focus on tackling disproportionality and have produced a race equity insights tool. The insights demonstrate why race equity should be central to designing and implementing policing interventions, especially focused deterrence programmes. Without careful design, these interventions can exacerbate racism, disproportionately harming children from Black and minoritised ethnic backgrounds.

What’s next: guidance for policing leaders

Later this year, we will publish practice guidance for policing leaders, including Chief Constables, Violence Reduction Unit directors, and all OPCCs (Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner). The guidance will bring together findings from research on safeguarding, drug markets and exploitation, and children’s experiences of child-centred policing to support more effective local practice.

Join our movement through evidence-based policing

If you’d like to explore how YEF can support your police force, Violence Reduction Unit or OPCC, please get in touch. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss how evidence-informed approaches can help reduce violence and improve outcomes for children in your area.