What is the London Young People Study?
To evaluate the potential effectiveness of Your Choice, the programme is being evaluated by a randomised controlled trial (RCT). This is a research method where teams are randomly picked to either deliver the new programme or to continue as they normally would. By comparing the two groups – the Your Choice teams and the Business As Usual teams – the Evaluators can determine the potential impact of Your Choice. The evaluation of the Your Choice programme is referred to as the London Young People Study.
The London Young People Study, with 1,465 recruits is the largest randomised controlled trial conducted to evaluate the impact of a CBT-informed violence reduction programme in the UK.
‘While other CBT programmes have been evaluated via a randomised controlled trial, this study is unique in evaluating a programme delivered at scale. This means that the data collected through the trial depicts a more representative picture of the cohort of young people the programme is designed to support, a group of young people we know are otherwise under-represented in clinical services and trials. Moreover, the evaluation will provide more relevant insights into whether and how Your Choice is likely to benefit children if further funded. Both of these unique features make the study unique not only from a research standpoint, but also for the insights it will generate to improve policy and practice to help a group we know is most in need and yet least likely to access therapeutic support.’ IFS colleagues.
To find out more about RCTs watch the video below:
Who is involved?
Project team
The Your Choice programme has been developed by the London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA), supported by London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU). The LIIA team is responsible for the design, development and implementation of the programme whilst the VRU oversees financial aspects of the pan London programme and its evaluation.
Evaluation team
The evaluation is being carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Anna Freud Centre. The project funders, the Youth Endowment Fund, place a strong emphasis on evaluating ways of working to provide evidence bases to change practice.
Read more about our project partners here.
31 of London’s Boroughs
Across London 31 Local Authorities (LA) participated in the full-scale Efficacy trial to test out the Your Choice programme. Each of the participating LAs had at least one Your Choice team delivering the programme and one team operating as they normally would (Business As Usual/Control).
To coordinate the evaluation and programme delivery locally each LA has one or more Single Points of Contact (SPOCs) who oversees the teams involved. Trainers provide the 5-day Your Choice training to practitioners and the Clinical leads supervise the Your Choice practitioners.
How can I contact the team?
You can contact the central project team by emailing yourchoice@londoncouncils.gov.uk.
For Study specific questions, you can contact the evaluation team on londonstudy@ifs.org.uk
For queries related to funding, please contact Harriet Joseph at the VRU Harriet.Joseph@london.gov.uk