Coram has been commissioned to carry out an evaluation of the impact of EXODUS, a 12-month restorative mentoring programme delivered by UpskillU for 11- to 17-year-olds who have offended or who are at risk of offending.
With funding from the Youth Endowment Fund, Coram will evaluate EXODUS through a randomised controlled trial (RCT)*. An internal pilot will recruit 100 young people before August 2024 and will run until December 2024 before progressing to a full efficacy trial with 800 young people concluding in July 2026. The primary focus of the evaluation is to assess whether young people who receive EXODUS have different offending rates to young people who receive the usual support in youth offending, custody and community safety services.
The trial will recruit young people in Milton Keynes, Haringey and Northamptonshire through three referral partners: Northamptonshire Police and Youth Justice Service, Haringey Council and Youth Justice Service, and Oakhill Secure Training Centre. As part of the research, Coram has trained a group of peer researchers who have experienced the EXODUS programme to support with the engagement of young people in the trial.
The EXODUS mentoring programme has been running in these three areas for five years and is a well-established delivery partner. Between January 2019 and December 2021, EXODUS reached 6924 young people in Haringey and an evaluation by The Bridge Renewal Trust indicated that the programme had positively affected young people’s behaviour. In Northamptonshire, analysis of data showed improvements in the reduction of arrests, violent offences, and victim episodes in 155 young people six months after completing EXODUS. Young people who were identified as appropriate for the programme but who refused to engage showed a 46% increase in violent offences and a 35% increase in violent suspect occurrences when comparing six months prior and six months post referral.
These findings need to be treated with caution as children and young people who did engage and did not engage with EXODUS may be from very different groups. The randomised controlled trial delivered by Coram will account for any differences in groups and provide more definitive findings about the efficacy of the programme.
Hannah Lawrence, research manager at Coram and principal investigator, said: “We are delighted to be selected by the Youth Endowment Fund to work with UpskillU to evaluate its EXODUS mentoring programme. Coram is at the forefront of developing solutions that offer children and young people a better future and it is essential to build an evidence base on what works for young people who are at risk of offending and youth violence to ensure they receive the right support. This evaluation builds on Coram’s experience of delivering randomised controlled trials in the social care sector and the insight gained will help to shape future services to reduce youth violence and offending.”
For further information or to make a referral to the trial, please contact: research@coram.org.uk.