The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) is Britain’s leading independent microeconomic research institute. Our research not only has an impact on policy makers, think tanks and practitioners, it has also gained a worldwide reputation for academic rigour, and contributes to the development of academic scholarship. We have unrivalled authority on the public finances and have been awarded `Think Tank of the Year’ by Prospect Magazine in 2009 and `Best Economics and Finance Think Tank’ many years in a row. We have worked on influential evaluations of social programmes for young people, including the education maintenance allowance and HeadStart, a National Lottery funded mental health community-wide intervention for young people.
Imran Rasul, who is one of the IFS research directors and the person in charge of the study was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 2019, elected as a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 2020, and appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for Services to Social Sciences, in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours. He’s also a member of the Academic Advisory Group, Ministry of Justice Data First project.
Julian Edbrooke-Childs and his team are in the Evidence Based Practice Unit (EBPU) at the Anna Freud Centre. Founded in 2006 as a collaboration between UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences and the Anna Freud Centre, EBPU bridges cutting-edge research and innovative practice in children’s mental health. Among other things, they have been involved in the Evaluation, Health and Justice Specialised Commissioning Workstream, and the Mental Health Policy Research Unit funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. IFS and AFC have worked together on the evaluation of HeadStart mentioned above.
The Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) was announced by the Mayor in September 2018 and brings together specialists from health, police, local government, probation and community organisations to better understand why violence happens and to take action to prevent it. The VRU is taking a fundamentally different approach to violence reduction – one where the public sector institutions and communities that make up London act together to help prevent violence. The VRU secured funding from the Home Office and the Youth Endowment Fund to deliver the London Young People Study (LYPS). The VRU’s Young People’s Action Group were involved in co-producing Your Choice and providing feedback to ensure a young person’s perspective was embedded in the programme’s design and delivery.
If you would like to learn more about the work VRU do, watch this video showcasing their achievements over the past 6 years.
The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) was established in March 2019 by children’s charity Impetus, with a £200m endowment and ten-year mandate from the Home Office. The Youth Endowment Fund is on a mission to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence. They do so by funding work in England and Wales that aims to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence. YEF also places a strong emphasis on evaluation ways of working to provide evidence bases to change practice and work for change. The London Young People Study (LYPS) is one of the programmes that receives funding from YEF.
The Home Office is the lead government department for immigration and passports, drugs policy, crime, fire, counter-terrorism and police. The Home Office funded the first phase of the Your Choice programme until March 2022.