Lottery backs projects with strong track record to help 250,000 at risk

The range of evidence-based interventions available to professionals working with young people at risk of offending is currently limited.

In a bid to tackle this, the Big Lottery Fund’s Realising Ambition scheme is investing £25m in projects designed to prevent young people becoming involved in criminal activity and antisocial behaviour.

Intervention programmes with a track record of success in other countries will feature among a total of 25 projects being set up as part of the scheme, which aims to improve the prospects of 250,000 eight- to 14-year-olds, while building an evidence base of what works in the UK.

Among the projects funded is Friends of the Children, which is based on a US initiative that has been running for more than 15 years. It selects children while they are young and gives them a long-term paid, professional mentor. In the US, results show that 90 per cent of adolescents on the programme go on to earn a high school diploma, the equivalent of five GCSEs at grade A to C in the UK. A similar proportion avoids involvement with the criminal justice system.

Sam Fitzpatrick, who is leading on the UK development of the project for Cornwall-based charity Trelya, says the programme will see a total of 16 children mentored over a period of five years from next spring.

“We will be linking up with a range of agencies to pick up children displaying risk factors,” she says. “As a youth project, we believe that you have to build long-term relationships and be intensive in what you do to reach the most disadvantaged children and young people.”

Other projects being financed include LifeSkills Training, a substance abuse and violence prevention programme widely used in the US, which will be replicated by Barnardo’s. The initiative provides young people with intensive training to help them learn alternatives to risky behaviour.

Project outcomes
Backed by 30 scientific studies in the US, LifeSkills has been shown to reduce drug use among participants by up to 75 per cent, alcohol use by up to 60 per cent, tobacco use by up to 87 per cent and verbal or physical aggression by up to 50 per cent. It also has estimated savings to society of £12.78 for every £1 spent.

Paul Edwards, Barnardo’s LifeSkills manager, says: “We are aiming to establish whether the programme can be successfully replicated outside the US, whether it can provide positive outcomes in terms of preventing young people becoming involved in substance misuse and the criminal justice system and whether it can demonstrate the effectiveness of both investing in evidence-based programmes and focusing on early intervention and prevention.”

David Hopkins, acting head of national programmes at Catch22, which is leading the consortium delivering the Realising Ambition scheme, says it will eventually provide a range of credible investment options for local authorities and agencies.
“It is about building an evidence base for all these different interventions and showing how effectively they impact on outcomes for children and young people,” Hopkins says.

Realising Ambitions will also try to establish how to adapt programmes to different areas or to different demographics.

“There isn’t a long history of replication in our sector,” Hopkins says. “For years, the private sector has been finding successful business models and replicating them with fairly strong fidelity. This is an opportunity to learn how to replicate successfully.”

Peter Wanless, chief executive at the Big Lottery Fund, adds: “This investment will build an evidence base so the UK can understand far better how we can more effectively support children and young people in the future and prevent first-time offending.”