Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the £23 million for early intervention programmes to prevent young people being drawn into violence, announced on 8 March, will be used to work with their parents.

The Home Office will be investing up to £23 million in intervention programmes that evidence suggests will be effective in helping to stop young people from being drawn into violence.

This will be delivered through Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in existing serious violence hotspot areas. Investment will be made in programmes working with young people who are at risk of engagement or currently involved in violence. We will shortly be opening a competition process for VRUs to apply for the programme funding. As such, we cannot provide details of interventions working with parents, until the successful bids are selected.

The funding will also pilot the Creating Opportunities Forum, a new programme to support young people who may be at risk of serious violence to access employment opportunities. The rest of the funding is for a small number of grants including our Young People’s Advocates who work with young women and girls at risk of violence.

The Government has also invested £200 million in early intervention and prevention support initiatives over 10 years to support children and young people at risk of exploitation and involvement in serious violence, through the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF).

The YEF has 5 family focused projects from their launch grant round that work with parent and child. The nature of support includes but is not limited to therapy, resilience projects and protecting a child from abuse from the family. The total invested amount across all 5 projects is just over £5.7 million.

The YEF will launch its second grant round of 2021 in September: “A Supportive Home”, which will focus on the role of home and families to prevent youth violence. The YEF will identify programmes that are ready for robust impact evaluation or should be supported to reach this point within two years and intends to invest up to £20 million depending on the quality of applications.