Evidence and Gap Maps
Welcome to our research mapping resources, looking at the systems and programmes that help to keep children safe from involvement in violence.
Our Evidence and Gap Maps (EGMs) are here to help you find research on the programmes and systems that aim to keep children and young people safe from violence.
If you’re a researcher, policy analyst or academic, we hope they’ll be useful tools to help you find where evidence exists and where there are gaps.
Both are quite technical, which is why we’ve also developed the YEF Toolkit, which draws on our Programmes EGM. This is an accessible, online resource for people who work with and commission services for children and young people. It’ll support you to use the evidence in your decision-making and in your work. Along with the Department for Education (DfE), we’ll also be producing accessible summaries of reports that we commission based on the Systems EGM (which we’ve also developed as part of our research programme with the Department for Education).
Why do we need Evidence and Gap Maps?
To keep children safe, we need to make sure they’re getting the best possible support. Right now, this is difficult to do because we simply don’t know enough about:
- which approaches work.
- how the systems that children interact with (like the health system or social care) help or prevent young people getting the support they need.
Our two Evidence and Gap Maps (EGMs) are here to change this. Our Programmes EGM maps the evidence and identified gaps in what we know about different approaches and is mostly focused on discrete interventions (for example, mentoring, sports programmes or therapies) and how effective they are at reducing violence. This is really important knowledge, but we know that – to make change for young people – we can’t just look into programmes and practice, we need to understand whole systems. That’s why, in partnership with the Department for Education, we’ve also developed our Systems EGM, which identifies over 400 studies looking at various policies and practices that have been implemented in complex systems of services and support (for example, in education, health, social care or community support).
By mapping the evidence and identifying where there are gaps, the YEF, the Department of Education and our partners will be able to focus research in areas that build our understanding of what works to protect children from violence. It also helps us to find where there’s lots of high-quality evidence, which we’ll make easily accessible through our online Toolkit, literature reviews and new resources.
Programmes Evidence and Gap Map
The YEF’s Programmes Evidence and Gap Map is the largest map of studies on this topic in the world.
Systems Evidence and Gap Map
The Department for Education and YEF’s Systems Evidence and Gap Map helps you find research on different systems of support that are available to children and families in the UK and Ireland (like education, health, social care or community support), and how they might protect (or expose) children and young people to violence.