New Fund to Support Vulnerable Children and Young People Outside the Home

Funding available for local authority partnerships in England and Wales to test specialist neighbourhood teams to support children, young people and their families who are vulnerable to violence or criminal exploitation outside the home.

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) is an independent charitable trust run by Impetus, in partnership with the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) and Social Investment Business (SIB). It aims to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence by finding out what works and building a movement to put this knowledge into practice.

For this grant round of the Agency Collaboration Fund, the YEF partnered with Children in Need and The Hunter Foundation to launch a supportive home.

A supportive home will test specialist multi-agency and multi-disciplinary teams located in neighbourhoods to support children, young people and their families/carers who are vulnerable to – or experiencing – violence or criminal exploitation outside the home.

Projects will be initially funded for 18 months. This includes up to six months preparation, including recruitment, and a 12-month implementation phase. Implementation will be evaluated through a feasibility study.

Subject to positive feasibility study findings, projects will then be funded for a further two or three years during which an impact evaluation will be undertaken.

Applications are sought from local authority area partnerships where the lead partner is the local authority.

As a minimum, partnerships must include:

  • Local authority – inclusive of early help; children’s social care; Youth Offending Team; education; youth work (where delivered by the local authority); relevant services to support young adults.
  • Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) delivery partners – these may be large specialist organisations and/or local specialist grassroot organisations who are known and trusted by the communities.
  • The police.
  • Probation.
  • Mental health professionals for both children and young adults.
  • Education, (if not part of the local authority) including schools.

In addition, there’s an expectation that partnerships will place a strong emphasis on involving children and young people and their parents/carers as partners in the service design, delivery and review.

For the feasibility phase, the YEF will invest up to £500,000 per partnership for delivery costs and between £85,000 and £110,000 per partnership for evaluation.

Applications must be submitted by the deadline of 16 May 2023 (5pm).

(This report was the subject of a GRANTfinder Newsflash.)