Purpose of the project

Cordis Bright was commissioned by the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) to conduct an evaluation of Salford Foundation's STEER programme to test whether STEER – a mentoring programme for at risk children aged 10 to 17 years old – reduces self-reported offending and improves related outcomes for the children who take part.

The evaluation included an initial pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT), followed by a full efficacy RCT with an implementation and process evaluation (IPE) and a cost assessment.

What is STEER?

STEER is a mentoring intervention developed by Salford Foundation to reduce children’s involvement in violence. It supports children aged 10 to 17 who are identified as being at risk of involvement in violent crime, including because of associations with peers or family members involved in serious violence, organised crime or gangs. Children are referred by partners including multi-agency panels, education settings, complex safeguarding teams and the police.

The intervention included:

• Initial interactions and assessment (over four weeks)
• Weekly one-to-one, face-to-face mentoring sessions (one hour per week for 24 weeks)
• Wraparound casework including phone calls, online support and multi-agency meetings (one hour per week for 24 weeks)
• Support for parents and carers from a family support worker (14 hours over six months)

Face-to-face sessions followed a Toolkit with mandatory and optional topics, including safety planning, relationships, exploitation, weapon carrying and goal setting. Sessions took place in settings where children felt comfortable, including at home, at school, at Salford Foundation offices or in the community.

Methodology

Children were randomly allocated either to a treatment group, which received STEER, or to a control group, which received signposting to business-as-usual services. In total, 689 children were randomised: 337 to STEER and 352 to the signposting group.

The primary outcome was offending behaviour, measured using the Self-Reported Delinquency Scale. Secondary outcomes included pro-social behaviour, emotional symptoms, peer relationships, relationships with adults, and conduct problems, measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. The quality of the mentor–mentee relationship was also assessed using the Social Support and Rejection Scale.

An implementation and process evaluation ran alongside the trial to assess how effectively STEER was implemented, identify the factors that shaped delivery, and understand children’s experiences of support. This included interviews with 15 children, 11 STEER project staff and 10 wider stakeholders, including local councils, police and youth justice services. Delivery data was also collected. Data collection took place between May 2022 and March 2025.

Key findings

• Impact on offending. The efficacy RCT found a small negative impact on self-reported offending behaviour, meaning children in the STEER group were slightly more likely to report offending than those in the signposting group.
• Secondary outcomes found a moderate positive impact in emotional symptoms, a small positive impact in peer difficulties and pro-social behaviour and a small negative impact on conduct problems. These findings were uncertain and should be interpreted with caution.
• Relationships with mentors. The implementation and process evaluation found that children often described strong, trusting relationships with mentors and valued the support they received.
• Programme dosage. The evaluation highlighted delivery challenges that may have affected the programme’s ability to achieve measurable change, including lower-than-intended dosage and partial family engagement.
• Security rating. The results have a moderate security rating in line with YEF’s magnifying glass ratings.

Lessons for others

The evaluation highlights several lessons for others designing and delivering mentoring interventions for children at risk of violence.

• Relationships matter. Children consistently described trusted relationships with mentors as the most valuable part of the programme.
• Intensity and sustained engagement are critical. Sustained mentoring contact may be necessary to achieve behavioural change, but maintaining this intensity can be challenging when working with children facing complex life circumstances.
• Family engagement can be difficult. Mentoring programmes often operate alongside multiple other services. This can make it harder for families to engage consistently with additional support.
• Implementation matters. Understanding how programmes are delivered in practice, including dosage, engagement and local system factors, is essential for interpreting trial results and improving interventions.

This highlights the importance of combining impact and implementation evidence when interpreting results. Understanding how a programme was delivered, how much support children actually received, and what barriers affected delivery is essential when interpreting findings and considering how a model might be improved.

Resources

STEER Efficacy Study report January 2026

STEER Efficacy Study Statistical Analysis Plan

Pilot trial report for STEER

For more information about the evaluation, please contact Dr Stephen Boxford or Dr Jade Farrell.