Detached youth work

About the project

Detached youth work aims to engage with young people ‘where they are at’, providing youth work in non-institutional settings. These settings are usually places that young people have chosen to be, such as on the street, in parks, shopping centres, fast food outlets or other community spaces. It is a responsive and flexible form of youth work, guided by young people’s needs, rather than being structured according to a prescribed set of activities.  

Building on previous YEF-funded feasibility and scoping studies, this pilot randomised controlled trial will test whether the proposed evaluation design is appropriate and feasible for assessing the impact of detached youth work on local-level incidences of youth-related crime and antisocial behaviour. 

This will be delivered by four regional consortia across England (Greater Manchester, Wiltshire & Swindon, Leeds, Wakefield & Barnsley, and Middlesbrough & Stockton), each consisting of youth work delivery partners, local authorities, police forces, violence reduction units/ community safety partnerships, and other relevant organisations. Hyper-local areas (‘patches’) within each consortium will be randomised between an intervention group – which will receive the services of a Detached Youth Worker for four hours per week – and a control group, where patches will continue to receive their usual services. Detached Youth Workers will follow a shared practice model, centred around engaging young people in conversation and relationship-building. These engagements typically take the form of unstructured street-based contact and informal education: spending time with peer groups, supporting young people with advocacy, and offering one-to-one and group support or challenge where a young person is open to it. It can also include semi-structured activities that include practical skills, teamwork and collaboration, and skill building, if that aligns with young people’s priorities. 

The pilot RCT will be complemented by a retrospective quasi-experimental study conducted in parallel, to estimate the likely effect sizes for a full efficacy trial.  

Project protocol

Find out more:

View our previous project page for Detached Youth Work and reports from the feasibility and scoping studies.