News and opinion

Focused deterrence programmes sit at the sharp edge of violence prevention, combining enforcement and support in ways that can either reduce harm or reinforce existing inequalities. Building on the Race Equity Implementation Guidance for Focused Deterrence, this blog shares delivery-level learning from the Nottingham-based Another Way programme about where race equity shows up in practice, and learning for future delivery.  This work was informed by Laurelle Brown Training and Consultancy’s…

In 2024, the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) and the Centre for Justice Innovation (CJI) embarked on a partnership together with one shared aim: to help policing and youth justice services deliver diversion effectively for children.  Eighteen months on, the partnership has supported practitioners across the country to translate evidence into practice – helping youth justice services implement diversion approaches that prevent young people from becoming…

When a programme combines enforcement and support to prevent violence, the question of racial equity isn’t optional; it is fundamental. Since 2023, I been working as a Race Equity Consultant across the Focused Deterrence (FD) programme in Leicester, Coventry and Wolverhampton (CIRV), and Nottingham, and providing light-touch support to Greater Manchester, where the team had their own core race equity consultants. Over this period, we have achieved progress,…

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a public health and human rights crisis, and it is now a national priority.  The Home Office’s new strategy places much greater emphasis on prevention and early intervention to address the root causes of abuse. This includes significant investment in identifying which approaches are most effective in changing harmful behaviours and misogynistic attitudes in young…

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…

51% of headteachers have reported to YEF that they are not confident in identifying and delivering evidence-based interventions for preventing children’s involvement in violence.    To better enable awareness and engagement of this evidence, YEF launched the Education Practice Insight Creator (EPIC) in July 2025, with over 250 schools having completed it so far.  EPIC is a free, digital self-assessment tool designed to help education leaders…

Finding what works isn't about chasing perfect results, but reducing guesswork. Each result better informs us to prevent violence.

Last week, the Government published guidance on what Police, Youth Justice Services (YJSs) and other agencies should do when a child is found in possession of a knife.   The guidance emphasises the importance of timely intervention for children – a key tenant of YEF’s Diversion Practice Guidance.   The Government guidance also sets out that YJSs should make use of the YEF Toolkit, stating that ‘Interventions should…