Cordis Bright was commissioned by the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) to carry out an exploratory study into the use of evidence-based practice in policing to prevent children from being involved in violence.

Children who come into contact with the police in relation to violence are often among the most vulnerable in society, and decisions made at the point of police contact can have long-term implications for their outcomes. This study explored the extent to which police forces across England and Wales draw on the best available evidence – including the YEF Toolkit – when deciding how to respond, and what shapes those decisions in practice.

The study addressed five research questions, examining:

• Practice: which interventions police forces are delivering to reduce children's involvement in violence, and how this aligns with the evidence base.
• Race equity: how equitably EBP is delivered for children from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
• Funding: the extent to which evidence-based interventions are funded by the Home Office and Offices of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCCs).
• Knowledge: what commissioners, senior leaders and frontline officers know about what works, and what shapes their decision-making.
• Policy and practice change: what changes, at both local practice and system level, are needed to support evidence-based practice.

The study used a five-phase, mixed-methods approach: a rapid review of policy and practice; a national survey of 43 regional police forces and British Transport Police, and of 37 OPCCs and five mayoral offices; in-depth case studies with five police forces; ten expert interviews; and five multi-agency workshops.

Key findings

• Delivery of evidence-based interventions was mixed. Restorative justice, a high-impact approach in the YEF Toolkit, was delivered by 76% of surveyed police respondents (n=528), and moderate-impact approaches such as hot spot policing (84%) and problem-oriented policing (69%) were widely used. However, focused deterrence – one of the strongest evidence-based approaches – was delivered by only 32%, despite 75% of respondents believing it to be effective.
• Equitable delivery is not yet systematically embedded. Only 17% of police respondents reported routinely collecting and analysing data on how interventions affect children from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, and evidence on approaches designed specifically for these groups remains limited.
• Funding structures were seen to constrain evidence-based practice. Where external funding was available, it typically came from the Home Office, OPCCs and Violence Reduction Units, but 50% of surveyed OPCC respondents (n=36) identified short-term funding cycles as a barrier to planning, delivering and evaluating interventions.
• Decision-making is still primarily shaped by internal police data, professional judgement and operational demand rather than external research evidence. Resource constraints (78% of police and 97% of OPCC respondents), time pressures (66% of police respondents) and skills gaps (42% of police respondents) were widely reported barriers to embedding EBP.

The project was led by Cordis Bright with support from Professor Iain Brennan (University of Hull), and quality assurance and advice from Dr Paul Quinton and Rob Braddock at the College of Policing.

The full report is available here: https://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/reports/policing-children-and-violence/

For more information about the study, please contact Dr Jade Farrell or Dr Angela Collins.