Today (Monday 10 December), the Home Secretary has launched the bidding
process to choose an organisation or consortium that will run the
£200 million youth endowment fund.
Announced in October as part of the government’s long-term plan
to tackle serious violence, the fund will provide a 10 year
investment to support interventions steering young people away
from becoming involved in violent crime or reoffending.
It will also build the evidence base for the most effective
interventions for tackling serious violence.
Launching the bidding process to run the youth endowment fund,
Home Secretary said:
The youth endowment fund will significantly strengthen our
response to serious violence and support action we are already
taking, such as the Offensive Weapons Bill and National County
Lines Coordination Centre.
I want it up and running and saving lives as soon as possible,
and look forward to receiving the proposals to run this
substantial investment
The youth endowment fund will be run by an independent
organisation or body, similar to the Education Endowment
Foundation. It will invest £200 million and use the proceeds to
fund projects designed to guide vulnerable young people away from
violent crime, and develop and share new knowledge of the
approaches that are most successful.
The successful bidder will need to demonstrate its ability to:
- use sector knowledge and available evidence to identify the
best projects to fund
- ensure robust evaluation of the projects, using this
evaluation to build a body of evidence on what works in stopping
children and young people from becoming involved in crime and
violence
- share this evidence and best practice in order that it might
inform policy making, academic research and the local
commissioning of services
- seek to grow the value of the fund through attracting further
contributions
- administer and manage the fund as a long-term investment from
April 2019
Prospective bidders to run the fund will need to submit their
proposals by 23 January. Full details on the application process
are available on the call for proposals
webpage.
The youth endowment fund is one of three innovative new measures
announced by the Home Secretary in October which also includes a
new legal duty to underpin a ‘public health’ approach to tackling
serious violence, for which a consultation is due to be launched
shortly, and an independent review of drug misuse to ensure law
enforcement agencies and policy teams are targeting and
preventing the drug-related causes of violent crime effectively.
The government also continues to deliver the 61 commitments
outlined in the Serious Violence Strategy, including seeing the
Offensive Weapons Bill to restrict access to dangerous weapons
through Parliament, delivering the £17 million Early Intervention
Youth Fund, a new £3.6 million National County Lines
Co-ordination Centre to disrupt violent drug gangs and a £1.4
million social media hub to identify and take down online
material inciting violence which will open early 2019.
