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…

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…

Where a child lives shouldn’t decide their future but right now, it does. Access to out of court resolutions varies across the country, meaning some children get a second chance while others get a sentence.  What the evidence tells us  In one of our latest blogs, we spoke about:  Introducing the Out of Court Resolution…

We know that when it’s done well, diverting children away from the criminal justice system can work. It can reduce reoffending, lower the risk of future harm, and give children a better chance to thrive. But right now, too many children don’t get the right support at the right time. We’ve just published two new…