With 51% of Headteachers reporting a lack of confidence tackling violence in school, YEF says more resources and guidance are needed. 

In England, 51% of Headteachers report that they are ‘not confident’ or ‘not at all confident’ in identifying and delivering evidence-based interventions for preventing children’s involvement in violence¹. 

This knowledge gap is understandable and unsurprising given that most professionals working in schools have received little or no training on this – 82% of teachers in England report receiving no training on serious violence in the last two years². 

Today, the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) launch a new digital tool to help school leaders address this knowledge gap and build the confidence to tackle violence in school through evidence-informed practice. 

The Education Practice Insight Creator (EPIC) is a free digital tool that enables education leaders to periodically assess their practice against evidence-informed guidance. Leaders receive instant insights highlighting strengths and opportunities for improvement, as well as access to practical resources and guidance. 

Created by and with education leaders, the tool has considered the time pressures facing school leaders and offers Senior Leadership Teams an opportunity to collaborate on self-assessment and improvement planning. Of the 31 academies who took part in the pilot (23 from Harris Academies and eight from Future Academies), 100% of users reported completing the self-assessment tool in under 40 minutes. This is a high impact activity for education leaders to undertake that is free and easy to complete. 

Too often, schools are expected to tackle complex issues like serious violence without the tools to understand what really makes a difference. As school leaders, we want to do the right things to support and keep children safe and EPIC can help with that. During the pilot, this tool helped our leaders understand more about the evidence, get a clearer view of current practice and invest our time and energy in what works. 

Sir Dan Moynihan, CEO, Harris Federation 

Education leaders are so often bombarded with guidance and recommendations on what they should be doing but with so many competing demands knowing what works and where to start can be a real challenge. We’ve designed this tool to enable leaders to quickly engage with the evidence, review where they’re at and receive evidence-informed insights on how they can improve support for children in their context.  

Dennis Simms – Assistant Director for Change in Education 

In addition to the new tool, YEF’s Education, Children and Violence guidance provides school, college and alternative provision (AP) leaders across England and Wales with five evidence-based recommendations on how to help prevent children’s involvement in violence. 

Recommendations include: 

• Deliver evidence-informed attendance-improvement strategies to keep children in education. 
• Provide one-to-one mentoring by trained adults to support vulnerable children. 
• Develop children’s social and emotional skills with a universal curriculum, targeted support and whole-school strategies. 

Explore the full recommendations here.