Redthread Youth Violence Intervention Programme

This project will try to find out whether Redthread workers can help support young people through their violence intervention programme.

On this project we will be carrying out a mixed methods quasi-experimental study of young people (aged 11-17) supported by Redthread through their Youth Violence Intervention Programme. Redthread is a charity, and the Youth Violence Intervention Programme is based in hospital emergency departments in partnership with the major trauma network. We are trying to find out whether Redthread workers can help support young people who attend hospital with a violence related injury, who are at risk of, or already victims of violence or exploitation or gang involvement, or where there are other concerns regarding violence exploitation. We are currently setting up a one year pilot study with the intention to extend it for two more years depending on the outcomes of the pilot study.   

The children and young people (CYP) eligible for the intervention are those who have attended one of the 13 emergency departments (ED) where Redthread have teams as a result of violence or deemed at risk of exploitation or abuse by a referring clinical member of staff. CYP can also be referred should they present in a different part or department of the hospital or if information about their risk factors transpire following their admission. The intervention is bespoke and led by the CYP’s needs at that time. Once clinical needs are dealt with the intervention team continue building trust and a practical plan to help the CYP feel safe in preparation and following their discharge. RT therefore work within the hospital setting and in the community following discharge. The intervention is short-term, intensive and lasts up to 12 weeks in the majority of cases until the actions on the joint action plan between CYP and RT are met and the CYP has engaged with a professional network that can support their longer-term goals, away from violence:

  • For CYP who already have the support of multiple existing agencies and/or a key professional, the intervention is short-term and involves ‘scaffolding’ the reachable moment back into that CYP’s professional network. 
  • For CYP who don’t have an effective support network or who are facing extremely high levels of complex risk or harm, RT offer a longer intervention, lasting up to around three months. A more comprehensive risk and needs assessment is completed by the youth worker in partnership with the CYP, and a joint action plan is agreed. Actions can include support navigating statutory systems, casework around healthy relationships or managing difficult emotions, support to (re-)engage with education, securing alternative accommodation, accessing mental health or substance misuse support, relational referrals to community or statutory partners and diversionary activities, supporting the CYP to advocate for themselves in multi-agency meetings, or goal-setting and aspirational exercises.  

Funder: The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) 

Timeframe: January 2022 - May 2023 

Objective and outcomes

The overarching research objective of our evaluation is to provide a robust understanding of whether the Redthread programme leads to a reduction in violence/abuse related hospital readmissions in the subsequent one-year period. We aim to undertake: 

1) a process/implementation evaluation to measure how the well the programme is being delivered and differences between delivery locations (four in year 1)

2) an impact evaluation to assess whether the RT programme leads to a reduction in violence/abuse related hospital admissions and other metrics. We plan to undertake a quasi-experimental design using propensity score matching (PSM). The study will consist of collecting data from the treatment group (from the four hospital sites) and then, with the support of the relevant health informatics teams, identify a suitable group of controls whom have not used the service from at least one of the existing sites. Both groups will be followed up to assess their risk of readmission (specifically violence/abuse related) to hospital at 12 months

Project Team

People associated with the project:

  • Professor Paul Montgomery (Co-PI)
  • Dr Joht Singh Chandan (Co-PI)
  • Alice Burton (RF)
  • Dr Emily Evans (RF)
  • Dr Rasiah Thayakaran (RF)
  • Professor Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay
  • Dr Ioannis Karavias
  • Dr Shola Apena Rogers
  • Professor Eddie Kane (University of Nottingham)  

Project advisors:

  • Dr James Martin
  • Professor Krishnarajah Nirantharakumar

Contact details