Evaluation Service for the Early Intervention Youth Fund (EIYF)

There is robust evidence that early interventions are effective in reducing violent behaviour. As such, a key commitment in the Serious Violence Strategy was to launch an Early Intervention Youth Fund that would support early intervention projects focused on preventing young people (under 18s and in some instances young adults) getting involved in serious violence. The Early Intervention Youth Fund of £22 million is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales. Over £17.7m has already been allocated to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) working with Community Safety Partnerships (or similar local partnerships) to support targeted early intervention and prevention activity with young people.

The Home Office has now appointed an Evaluation Partner to work with successful PCCs during the delivery of their projects. More specifically, the Home Office has commissioned: - A feasibility study to assess the feasibility of carrying out a robust impact evaluation of the intervention projects. - An impact evaluation. Depending on the outcome of the feasibility study, the Supplier shall design and conduct an impact evaluation using an experimental research design (or quasi-experimental design if experimental is deemed not feasible). - If an impact evaluation is not feasible for some interventions, the Supplier shall design and conduct a process evaluation across these Early Intervention Youth Fund projects to assess the underlying processes and mechanisms through which these interventions work.