Agency Collaboration Fund Round 2
A set of locally developed approaches that provide targeted support to children and young people at risk of involvement in serious violence and criminal exploitation.
Evaluation type
Funding round
A supportive homeActivity Type
Setting
Evaluator
Completed
October 2025| Projects | Funding | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Cardiff Council | £500,000 | Wales |
| East Sussex County Council | £500,000 | South East |
| Swindon Borough Council | £500,000 | South West |
| Swansea Council | £500,000 | Wales |
| London Borough of Newham | £500,000 | London |
What does this project involve?
Agency Collaboration Fund Round 2 (ACF2) is a set of locally developed approaches that aim to provide targeted support to children and young people aged 10–20 years who are at risk of, or experiencing, serious violence and criminal exploitation. In this project, in 10 neighbourhoods across five local authority areas (Cardiff, East Sussex, Newham, Swansea and Swindon), specialist multi-agency panels referred children and young people into support that combined dedicated one-to-one work with a keyworker and access to a wider range of commissioned services and activities.
Key worker support was broadly consistent across sites, but wider activities and services varied by site. For example, one area commissioned personal social health and economic education(PSHE) and theatre workshops, while another employed educational psychologists to lead targeted interventions. Key workers also engaged with children and families to assess needs before providing tailored support, typically over a minimum of 12 weeks. Parents and carers were also offered support, including family conferencing, peer support groups and help accessing multi-agency support for their children.
Why did YEF fund this project?
We know that many children and young people at risk of becoming involved in violence are known to local agencies. Yet this knowledge is often fragmented across multiple organisations, with different people holding different pieces of the puzzle. Opportunities where agencies could and should work together to support children are often missed. To help understand where those opportunities are, YEF have invested in the Agency Collaboration Fund. We want to find out how agencies can better share data, power and information to prevent children from becoming involved in violence and provide better support to them.
For the second grant round of this Agency Collaboration Fund (ACF2), we partnered with BBC Children in Need and the Hunter Foundation to test a particular type of multi-agency collaboration: specialist multi-agency and multi-disciplinary teams located in neighbourhoods who support children and young people aged 10–20 years at risk of, or experiencing, serious violence and criminal exploitation.
This report is a feasibility and pilot study of ACF2 that aimed to describe programme reach, retention and delivery. It aimed to establish how consistently the eligibility criteria were used; explore the referral, engagement, and support processes; and identify what factors support or impede delivery. The evaluation also aimed to understand how ACF2 was experienced, refine and test the theory of change and assess the feasibility of progressing to a full efficacy study, including whether the measurement of individual and area-level outcomes is possible.
The study used a mixed-methods design. Programme monitoring data were analysed to track referrals, participation, and delivery. Children and young people completed baseline and follow-up Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ) and Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS) surveys to test the feasibility of measuring outcomes over time. The evaluation also involved interviews and focus groups with 52 children and young people, 23 parents or carers, and 65 multi-agency stakeholders and practitioners to understand experiences of ACF2. It also explored administrative data from schools and the police to explore whether these records could be used in a future efficacy study.
A total of 726 children and young people were eligible for the programme. Baseline survey participants were of Asian or Asian British ethnicity (6.4%), Black or Black British ethnicity (10.0%), Mixed ethnicity (8.5%), White ethnicity (71.1%) and Other ethnicity (4.0%). The study took place between April 2024 and May 2025.
Key conclusions
| ACF2 was delivered as expected. All five local authority areas had specialist multi-agency referral panels and eligibility criteria in place, and each provided trusted, coordinated key worker support alongside wider family and peer support, as well as neighbourhood interventions. |
| ACF2 successfully engaged and retained children and young people. A total of 726 children and young people were eligible across the five local authorities, of whom 635 received key worker support. Retention was enabled by the trusted relationships built between children and their key workers. |
| Children and parents generally viewed ACF2 positively. Children and parents valued the inclusivity and adaptability of support and the trusted relationships with key workers. Practitioners and schools also viewed ACF2 positively. Practitioners described it as filling a gap in provision by engaging children who would not otherwise have received targeted help. |
| It was feasible to collect outcome data at the individual, site and programme levels. Survey targets were met across sites, with children and young people completing baseline and follow-up measures. Administrative records, including school data and police data, could be used to measure outcomes at the neighbourhood level and, when combined across all delivery sites, at the programme level. |
| Progressing to a full efficacy study is feasible. The most feasible approach is a quasi-experimental design using neighbourhood-level outcomes. This would require between 14 and 22 local authority sites. A cluster randomised controlled trial with outcomes at the individual level was considered unlikely to be feasible. |
What will YEF do next?
The YEF has no current plans to proceed with further evaluation of ACF2.