Below-threshold landscape: children and young people vulnerable to violence
A working reference map — Centre for Safer Society / Youth Endowment Fund research
Click any programme to read notes
Universal / open access
Targeted / identified cohort
Any child / young person can access
Specific children identified by need or risk
Strategic infrastructure
Violence Reduction Units
Place-based public health commissioning. Fund and coordinate prevention activity across a geography.
Commissioning body
Contextual safeguarding
Practice framework for extra-familial harm. Not a programme — a methodology shaping how systems respond.
Practice framework
Early help system
Families First Partnership / Family Help
National architecture for below-threshold and s17 support. Lead practitioner + multidisciplinary team. Replaced Supporting Families.
Statutory framework
Best Start Family Hubs
Co-located services, pregnancy to 19. Physical home of Family Help in many areas.
Infrastructure
Team Around the Family / local prevention panels
Locally named multi-agency coordination forums. No national model — vary hugely by area.
Local variation
Direct delivery: violence & exploitation
Young Futures Hubs
Drop-in community spaces 10–18. Youth workers, mental health, careers support. 50 hubs planned by 2029.
In development
Young Futures Panels
Home Office pilot in ~20 VRP areas. Weekly multi-agency panel. Police identify children. Consent-based support package.
Pilot — Home Office
Turnaround
MoJ-funded via YOTs. Intensive support for children at edge of criminal justice. Consent-based, time-limited.
MoJ / YOT delivered
— Statutory threshold —
Child in Need (s17) · Child Protection (s47) · Children Looked After
YOT statutory supervision · Court orders · Custody
Research scope (YEF project): Children vulnerable to violence who do not meet statutory threshold — the space above the line. The central question: who holds oversight? Are they referred on, do they engage, do they complete support, do they become safer over time?
Strategic / commissioning infrastructure
Early help system (statutory architecture)
Universal direct delivery
Targeted direct delivery
Local variation / no national model