Home Secretary Sajid Javid has launched the bidding process to choose an organisation or consortium that will run the £200m Youth Endowment Fund. Announced in October as part of the government’s efforts to tackle serious violence, the Fund will provide a ten 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.
Sajid Javid 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 £200m 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 show 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, 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 Wednesday, January 23.
