News and opinion

New data on diversionary outcomes with youth justice service (YJS) involvement has been published by the Youth Justice Board – the first time this specific data has been made available. It’s a welcome step, and one YEF called for in our Arrested Children System Guidance back in 2023.  The figures show younger children (aged 10–14) were far more likely to receive a diversionary outcome…

YEF recently published four evaluations on Trauma-Informed Practice (TIP) – the first robustly-designed randomised controlled trials on TIP and children’s outcomes that we are aware of.

Listen to young people affected by knife crime on early intervention, safe spaces, and trusted adults. How their priorities are now government policy.

What do you picture when you hear the word ‘extremism’? Clear ideologies, organised groups, anti-democratic chants? Perhaps it’s something similar to the upsetting sight I witnessed in Hyde Park recently: Nazi swastikas, and the words ‘Britishness is Whiteness’, proudly displayed on protest placards.  Long-standing forms of extremism clearly persist and must remain a central focus of national security. But a report by the Home Affairs Committee, published last month, paints a more varied picture. It…

As a young person in 2026, I think awareness alone is no longer enough. This Mental Health Awareness Week we need action.

Guest Authors: Ali Fraser and Luke Billingham The Home Office have recently published a new strategy designed to ‘halve knife crime’ over a ten year period. But what does it actually take to achieve this? In this blog we reflect on a four year study on the public health approach to violence reduction, asking what…

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…