Abstract
BACKGROUND: Across the United Kingdom (UK), there are increasing calls for the implementation of multi-agency approaches to addressing violence or criminal exploitation outside the home (i.e. extra-familial harm) that address the needs of the child/young person (and their families) and the neighbourhood context in which harms occur. However, to date, there is very little evidence on what an effective multi-agency approach to supporting children and young people, and their families, looks like, or the services they should provide. This article presents the protocol for a feasibility and pilot study of a specialist multi-agency team embedded in neighbourhoods to support children and young people, and their families, who are at risk of, or experiencing, violence or criminal exploitation outside the home. METHODS: A mixed-methods feasibility and pilot study will examine implementation across five UK sites. Pre- and post-outcome measures will be collected from ~1000 children/young people receiving targeted support (~200 per site). Interviews will be undertaken with children and young people, parents/carers, and stakeholders to examine views and experiences of programme implementation and outcomes/impacts, and as relevant evaluation design and outcome measurements. The extent to which findings from the feasibility and pilot study support progression to a full impact study will be reviewed. If a randomised controlled trial (RCT) is not feasible, we will explore a quasi-experimental (natural experiment) evaluation design, using the 'Target Trial Framework' to make explicit where a future evaluation will align with, and where it deviates, from the ideal target trial (RCT). DISCUSSION: This study will provide an important and timely contribution to the emerging, but limited, evidence base surrounding the implementation of place-based multi-agency interventions to support children, young people, and their families at risk of extra-familial harm. This work has direct implications for informing UK policy and practice in the wake of the Independent Review of Children's Social Care (2022), which called for a 'whole system reset' including an improved, multi-disciplinary 'revolution in Family Help' to improve outcomes for children and young people, and their families. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: The full study plan is available here: https://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/REVIEWED-YEF-AC2-Feasibility-Pilot-Study-Plan-FINAL-July-2024.pdf and via the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/s9bux/ .