On behalf of the Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), the Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership (MVRP) was established to prevent and reduce serious violence. In 2024, MVRP merged its arts, culture and sport fund with the PCC’s Youth Diversion Fund to create the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) Fund, providing larger grants to reach more young people through ambitious projects; 30 organisations received up to £25,000 each to deliver interventions across Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens and Wirral.
Fortia Insight (formerly ERS and part of RSM UK Consulting LLP) was commissioned in January 2024 to design the evaluation framework, logic model and a suite of research tools to evidence the success of the scheme’s implementation and outcomes. This resulted in a flexible, inclusive toolkit for use by diverse grantee organisations and end users. Youth-facing tools were co-produced and piloted with young people and refined using their feedback. To add rigour to the evaluation and support organisational development, Fortia Insight provided detailed guidance and ran workshops and one-to-one sessions with grantees on using the evaluation toolkit and measuring impact.
Following successful completion of the evaluation design phase, Fortia Insight was recommissioned by MVRP to evaluate the 2024–2025 YES programme. The evaluation aimed to (1) demonstrate the purpose and value of the YES Fund; (2) strengthen MVRP’s understanding of links between funded activities and intended outcomes and impacts; and (3) build a robust evidence base on what works and why to inform future commissioning, enabling experimentation and innovation.
Challenges
Designing an evaluation framework and tools for diverse ages, needs and delivery contexts: With 30 grantee organisations spanning different sectors, intervention types and audiences, the toolkit had to work, and be meaningful, across ages 5–25, including young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We designed a highly flexible, inclusive suite that could be used individually or in groups, offered online (and printable) formats and combined age-tailored surveys with a range of participatory tools (e.g., illuminative drawings; mix-media journalling; and graffiti wall quick voting/‘Pots and Beans’). SEND accessibility was built in (plain language, visual supports and sensory tools). The tools were iterated year on year using user feedback. To assure quality and depth, the evaluation team conducted deep-dive visits to observe tool use in context and added triangulating research, sessions with young people plus interviews with parents and stakeholders, to corroborate findings.
Delivering evaluation amid programme delays and community disruption: Following the Southport stabbings (2024) and subsequent unrest, Fortia Insight adapted sensitively to changing timelines and capacity. The team worked one-to-one with organisations to select the most suitable tools, switched from planned baseline/endline to single-touch data collection where needed, streamlined instruments and prioritised low-burden methods, maintaining data quality within a much shorter time frame and the unpredictable youth work context in Merseyside.
Engaging a broad stakeholder base: Fortia Insight combined interviews, surveys and case study visits with programme staff, delivery teams, young people and parents and carers (and, where relevant, community partners) to ensure balanced evidence and inclusive perspectives.
Ensuring consistent, comparable data across 30 diverse grantees: Different sectors, intervention types and audiences (ages 5–25, including young people with SEND) risked fragmented evidence. The team used a flexible yet standardised toolkit, clear guidance and light-touch support to keep measures comparable and accessible.
Attribution vs. contribution in a complex context: Violence reduction is shaped by many factors. Fortia Insight focused on contribution, triangulating data sources and using a shared logic model to show how activities plausibly led to change.
Impacts
Key evaluation findings include evidence demonstrating the following:
- Young people reported that interventions supported them to reduce conflict within their lives, improve their mental and physical health and control their emotions better.
- Shared identity and experience was highlighted as an important means of reducing isolation and loneliness for young people.
- Statistics from the PCC showed that serious crime in Merseyside had been prevented and reduced.
- Cultural change was being achieved across the region via networking, collaboration and the adoption of the public health approach to dealing with serious violence.
- Cultural change was driven through the whole family approach to build resilience among communities, not just young people.
- A range of outcomes was delivered on both individual and group levels to reduce people’s vulnerabilities associated with violence.
Fortia Insight’s framework design and evaluation have influenced both the MVRP and delivery organisations’ funding and programme design:
- Informed delivery adjustments: The findings have been used by delivery organisations to redesign and structure interventions and programmes.
- Shaped future funding calls: Insights from the evaluation have guided the design of the 2025–2026 funding programme.