Youth Crime Reduction and Sport Pilot Project Evaluation Report
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Youth Crime Reduction and Sport Pilot Project Evaluation Report Dr Carolynne Mason, Professor Paul Downward and Caron Walpole (School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences) Dr Jamie Cleland & Professor Jo Aldridge (School of Social, Political and Geographical Sciences) March 2017 Contents: 1. Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 4 2. Evaluation Overview ........................................................................................................ 14 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 14 2.2 Evaluation Overview ...................................................................................................... 15 2.3 Summary of Data Collection .......................................................................................... 16 2.3.1 Qualitative Case studies .......................................................................................... 16 2.3.2 Monitoring Data ...................................................................................................... 18 2.3.3 Quantitative Data .................................................................................................... 18 3. Process Evaluation ............................................................................................................... 20 3.1 Programme Context ....................................................................................................... 20 3.2 Pilot Programme Overview ............................................................................................ 22 3.3 Overview of the pilot projects ....................................................................................... 22 3.4 Participants in the pilot .................................................................................................. 24 3.5 Identifying the Key Characteristics of an Effective Sport-Based Project ....................... 25 3.5.1 Literature Review – What Works? .......................................................................... 26 3.5.2 Development of Logic Model and Theory of Change ............................................. 31 3.5 Key Characteristics of an effective sports-based project .............................................. 38 3.6 Pilot Project Stakeholder Experiences related to the Key Characteristics .................... 40 Characteristic 1: Right Staff ............................................................................................. 40 Characteristic 2: Right Young People ............................................................................... 43 Characteristic 3: Right Style and Right Place ................................................................... 45 Characteristic 4: Attractive Offer ..................................................................................... 47 Characteristic 5: Rewards and Rewarding ....................................................................... 48 Characteristic 6: Clear Ethos ............................................................................................ 48 Characteristic 8: Multi-agent/Partnerships ..................................................................... 53 Characteristic 9: Personal Development Opportunities .................................................. 55 Characteristic 10: Positive Pathway ................................................................................. 57 3.7 Key Characteristics Re-examined ................................................................................... 61 4. Impact Report .................................................................................................................. 64 2 4.1 Introduction............................................................................................................... 64 4.2 Impact - Summary of Qualitative Case Study Findings ................................................. 64 4.3 Potential future financial cost savings ...................................................................... 67 4.3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 67 4.3.2 Future cost savings based on risk and protection factors ...................................... 68 4.4 Impact on reduced demand for police service in relation to youth crime and ASB ..... 72 4.4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 72 4.4.2 Analysis of ASB Data relating to case study projects .............................................. 75 5. Summary of learning from the pilot projects .................................................................. 87 6. Recommendations for future Work ..................................................................................... 92 6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 92 6.2 Case Study 1: Network Rail Tackling Track Safety Project (TTSP) .............................. 92 6.3 Case Study 2: South Yorkshire Sport for Change ....................................................... 94 References ......................................................................................................................... 100 3 1. Executive Summary The Youth Crime Reduction and Sport Pilot Project resulted from StreetGames and the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Derbyshire successfully securing funding from the Home Office Police Innovation Fund. The project aimed to test, explore and build an evidence base to show the most effective ways to maximise the value of appropriately designed sport-based interventions to policing and youth crime reduction initiatives. The timescale for the project was April 2015 – March 2017 and it had the following aims: Test the effectiveness of neighbourhood sports interventions aimed at reducing demand for police service in relation to youth crime and ASB within seven existing projects in the StreetGames network ( eight identified areas comprise: Derbyshire, Cheshire, West Mercia, Northumbria, Greater Manchester, North Wales, Gwent and Nottinghamshire). Link with Network Rail to review the effectiveness sport-based projects funded by Network Rail aimed at diverting young people away from rail track crime. Bring together an Expert Group from identified partners creating a task and finish group to bring together the three sectors of community safety, local government, and sport to lead and deliver this project. (including PCCs, Policing agencies, local government, Network Rail and StreetGames) Disseminate learning from the project to PCCs, crime agencies and the sports sector and produce a public facing document to explain the value of the work to communities as well as policing. Loughborough University were commissioned to evaluate the programme with the aim of developing a robust evidence base resulting from an exploration of the effectiveness of appropriately delivered neighbourhood based sports interventions in reducing demand for police service in response to youth crime and ASB. The evaluation involved a literature review, development of a logic-model and qualitative case studies of eight pilot projects located in England (n=6) and Wales (n=2). The qualitative case studies involved interviews with project leads, project staff and other partners (e.g. youth service staff, parents, Police and Community Support Officers (PCSOs) involved in the local projects. Focus groups were conducted with young participants and surveys were collated at the start and end of the project. The evaluation also drew on monitoring data collated by StreetGames and data collated by the police regarding youth-related ASB. Members of the evaluation attended regular network meetings attended by project leads in order to disseminate and verify early findings. The main aims of the evaluation were to: Identify the critical success factors underpinning effective sport-based projects (Process) Gather robust evidence demonstrating the impact of the pilot projects, drawing on relevant police youth-related ASB data in order to analyse potential financial cost savings and efficiencies, ideally achieving Maryland Scale 3 requirements (Impact) The evaluation findings with regard to these aims are presented within this report. 4 Qualitative Case Study Findings The eight sport-based pilot projects engaged 556 participants of which 69% were male and 31% female. The total number of sessions delivered was 898 and the total number of attendances by participants was 9237. These achievements exceed the targets for the pilot programme. The age range of participants was 10 years to 20+ with 46% of participants being 14-19 years old and 20% 13 years or under. The majority of participants described themselves as white (51%) but 29% did not specify their ethnicity and 28% did not specify their age (n.b. it is not uncommon for young people attending doorstep sport sessions to not wish to provide their full details). The projects were diverse and each project reflected the local context in which it was developed. Typically projects aimed to engage at least 20 participants in a sport-based project one evening per week (Two projects offered two sessions per week) in an area that was identified as experiencing ASB issues. Football was the sport offered by most projects