Preventing the First Offence
A strategic partnership for Youth Justice Services — for children and young people on the cusp of the justice system to those at demonstrable risk of entering it.
Book a Conversation Email UsFind the children, that need us most
Linked local authority data shows that a small cohort — a small percentage of children and young people known to social care — accounts for a large proportion of serious violence offences committed. The Evolve Development Tracker narrows a universal cohort to a manageable intervention group using attendance, behaviour, wellbeing, self-efficacy and teacher observation — without stigmatising labels.
A trusted adult, where they are needed
Evolve Health Mentors are highly trained, trauma-informed, trusted adults who are embedded in schools for a set number of days per week. They deliver relational, strengths-based support that builds each child's pro-social identity, engagement and self-efficacy — operationalising Child First principles in the setting where children and young people are reachable every day.
~70%
of serious violence offences from ~8% of children known to social care
~£1,200
cost per child per year, compares very favourably to other programmes and interventions
c.6:1
modelled financial return within Ministry of Justice budgets alone
2029
guaranteed Turnaround funding settlement creates a window to demonstrate the model
How It Works
Identify
Start with a universal cohort upstream of the peak age of first offence. Live Evolve Development Tracker data narrows the group to those children and young people most in need of support.
Intervene
An embedded Health Mentor supports a caseload of ~20 children per school with mentoring, group work and family engagement — voluntary, relational and shaped with each young person.
Evidence
A four-strand contribution framework: an actuarial baseline from linked data, termly intermediate outcomes, area-level first-time entrant trends, and 12-month proven-offence tracking.
Maps to the 2026 Reform Agenda
- Cutting Youth Crime. Changing Young Lives — directly addresses the shift from a crisis of capacity to a crisis of complexity through earlier intervention
- Turnaround expanded eligibility — children looked after, children in need and children on family plans map directly onto our target cohort
- Young Futures Panels and Hubs — a working, school-based blueprint for the trusted-adult model and multi-agency data sharing
- Child First principles — strengths-based, collaborative support that sees children as children, not future offenders
The Evidence, Honestly
- There is no counterfactual for a prevented first offence — so we measure against a transparent actuarial baseline rather than claiming what cannot be proven
- Intermediate outcomes are tracked termly — attendance, suspensions, wellbeing and self-efficacy, mapped to the VRU Outcomes Framework
- Our economic model is deliberately conservative — assuming only half the children we support would otherwise have entered the justice system
- Success is measured by the children who never appear in the data — and we publish what we find, including where the evidence isn't there yet