Protocol for a feasibility and pilot study of the implementation and impact of specialist multi-agency teams supporting children and young people at risk of, or experiencing, violence or criminal exploitation outside the home

TL;DR

This study explores how specialist multi-agency teams can support children and young people facing violence or criminal exploitation outside the home.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel feasibility and pilot study protocol for multi-agency neighborhood-based interventions to address extra-familial harm.

Findings

Mixed-methods data will be collected from five UK sites to assess the implementation of multi-agency support.

Interviews will explore the experiences of children, families, and stakeholders in the intervention process.

The study will determine if findings support a full-scale randomized controlled trial or alternative evaluation design.

Abstract

Across the United Kingdom (UK), there are increasing calls for the implementation of multi-agency approaches to addressing violence or criminal exploitation outside the home (i.e. extra-familial harm) that address the needs of the child/young person (and their families) and the neighbourhood context in which harms occur. However, to date, there is very little evidence on what an effective multi-agency approach to supporting children and young people, and their families, looks like, or the services they should provide. This article presents the protocol for a feasibility and pilot study of a specialist multi-agency team embedded in neighbourhoods to support children and young people, and their families, who are at risk of, or experiencing, violence or criminal exploitation outside the home.

A mixed-methods feasibility and pilot study will examine implementation across five UK sites. Pre- and post-outcome measures will be collected from ~1000 children/young people receiving targeted support (~200 per site). Interviews will be undertaken with children and young people, parents/carers, and stakeholders to examine views and experiences of programme implementation and outcomes/impacts, and as relevant evaluation design and outcome measurements. The extent to which findings from the feasibility and pilot study support progression to a full impact study will be reviewed. If a randomised controlled trial (RCT) is not feasible, we will explore a quasi-experimental (natural experiment) evaluation design, using the ‘Target Trial Framework’ to make explicit where a future evaluation will align with, and where it deviates, from the ideal target trial (RCT).

This study will provide an important and timely contribution to the emerging, but limited, evidence base surrounding the implementation of place-based multi-agency interventions to support children, young people, and their families at risk of extra-familial harm. This work has direct implications for informing UK policy and practice in the wake of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care (2022), which called for a ‘whole system reset’ including an improved, multi-disciplinary ‘revolution in Family Help’ to improve outcomes for children and young people, and their families.

The full study plan is available here: https://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/REVIEWED-YEF-AC2-Feasibility-Pilot-Study-Plan-FINAL-July-2024.pdf and via the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/s9bux/.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40814-025-01736-z.

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