Helping policing to reduce violence involving children with evidence of what works: One year of YEF and SEBP’s joint project.

A year ago, the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) formally joined forces with the Society of Evidence Based Policing (SEBP) with one shared aim: to help policing do more of what works. Together, we set out to better understand what the evidence says about preventing violence and keeping children safe—and crucially, to support those working in policing to apply this knowledge in practice.

Twelve months on, we’re proud to celebrate the impact of that partnership and look forward to more development to come.

Why SEBP?

With a network of thousands of police officers and staff, SEBP is a unique organisation in the policing world. It’s a charitable community built by and for policing professionals who believe that better decisions come from considering the evidence on what works and what doesn’t. That makes SEBP a natural partner for us at the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF), where we’re committed to building a better understanding of how to prevent children and young people from becoming involved in violence—and making sure that knowledge gets used.

Achievements: Bringing evidence-based policing into practice

Over the past year, SEBP has gone above and beyond in helping to bring evidence closer to frontline policing. Here are just a few highlights:

• Grown stronger as an organisation: SEBP now has its first paid Chief Operating Officer, helping professionalise and future-proof the organisation. It’s also introduced new governance and strategic planning processes that put it in a strong position to keep growing its impact.

• Brought evidence to the forefront of policing events: SEBP has hosted both national and international conferences, alongside three regional events and numerous showcases at other conferences. These gatherings have brought together hundreds of officers and staff to explore how evidence can inform practice across a number of sectors old and new, including serious and organised crime professionals, cyber and online specialists and analysts working in vulnerability. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive – more than 85% of respondents indicate these events add real value to them in their jobs.

• Focused on implementation: It's one thing to know what the evidence says; it’s another to apply it. That’s why we’re so proud of the introduction of implementation workshops - practical, interactive sessions that help translate research into action. These workshops have highlighted evidence-based approaches found in YEF’s violence prevention toolkit like hotspots policing, focused deterrence and problem-solving policing, provided SEBPs audience with an opportunity to interact with expert practitioners, and provided valuable reference materials.

• Improved access to knowledge: From launching a new website to creating a new Digital Members’ Hub, SEBP is making it easier than ever for policing professionals to access tools, resources, and insights. They’re even exploring how AI can help make evidence more understandable and actionable - a move we’re excited to watch unfold.

• Accelerated the growth of its community: Since the launch of our partnership, SEBP membership has increased by 27%. That’s over 1,500 new members in 12 months – the single biggest year of growth so far.

  
  

What’s next?

The journey’s far from over. Looking ahead, through the partnership, SEBP plans to:

• Grow its membership even further. The sky is the limit and we’re eager to see the membership base grow even further. There’s a lot of exciting plans ahead for developing the Members’ Hub and other member resources like the newsletter to help support members to find and use evidence in their jobs. SEBP will consult with its growing member-base to refine this resource.

• Host the 2025 National Evidence-Based Policing Conference in Huddersfield next month. This will mark the introduction of the first national EBP awards, including one dedicated to the prevention of youth violence. There will also be more regional events, starting with Gloucestershire in November.

• Run more conferences, workshops and evidence-sharing sessions—with an even stronger focus on youth violence prevention. The implementation webinars will expand to other areas of the YEF toolkit, and a new series of workshops will explore individual studies like YEF’s recent ‘police in classrooms’ and give members the chance to speak directly with authors.

• Expand work with other partners such as the College of Policing, Police-Academic Centres of Excellence and universities to amplify good use of evidence and provide tools for officers and staff.

• Continue to grow as a sustainable organisation. Next year, SEBP will recruit a second member of staff who will help to expand its digital hub and its outreach work to support its regional volunteer network. Our partnership will help SEBP beyond the lifetime of our agreement and help to build a lasting legacy of using evidence in policing.

  
  

Together, we’ll continue to build on this momentum. We want every police officer and staff member – no matter their role or region – to feel confident using evidence to make decisions. Because we believe that’s how we’ll keep children safe and prevent violence.

Here’s to another year of collaboration and change.