We were commissioned by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon and Somerset to conduct an impact evaluation of the Avon and Somerset Violence Reduction Unit.

This project aims to work with children and young people (and their families and schools) who are facing an exclusion or a managed move due to reasons associated with serious youth violence, and/or child criminal or sexual exploitation.

In particular, the work involves a Weapons in Schools pathway which supports education professionals in responding to weapons found in school, and delivers an intervention to the child/young person to address underlying risk factors that led to the incident.

The evaluation found that there is some evidence to suggest that Bristol’s education inclusion work has had positive outcomes for many of the children and young people it has worked with, and that it has improved the confidence of education providers who have worked with project staff in holding and managing risk.

This evaluation took place in parallel to an evaluation of the Education Inclusion: Teachable Moments Project, in which the Education Inclusion work was introduced across Avon & Somerset VRU. The report is accessible here.