Uniformed Youth Fund evaluation
Ipsos, in partnership with Dartington Service Design Lab, recently completed an evaluation of the Uniformed Youth Fund (UYF) for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The UYF provided £18.3 million over 2.5 years to eight uniformed youth organisations. The Fund aimed to increase opportunities in areas with unmet demand, open new groups in disadvantaged areas, support uniformed youth organisations (UYOs) to sustainably scale delivery, and ultimately improve the wellbeing and skills development of young people.
The evaluation had two components: a process evaluation to explore how the Fund was delivered and to what extent it achieved its objectives, and an impact evaluation exploring the impact of participating in uniformed youth groups on young people (which had a broader remit beyond the Fund).
Both evaluations employed a mixed-methods approach. The process evaluation mainly relied upon data from quarterly monitoring reports submitted by the UYOs, interviews with Fund delivery stakeholders, UYO central office staff, volunteers, and one in-depth case study with a new unit in each UYO.
The impact evaluation utilised a quasi-experimental design (QED) comparing outcomes for uniformed youth group members with a weighted comparison group of non-members using data from the National Pupil Database (NPD) and two rounds of surveys of young people. A total of 1,179 young people completed surveys at both time points, between eight and eleven months apart. A theory-based contribution analysis also drew upon this survey data, as well as interviews with young people (n=31 at two time points), and one in-depth case study per UYO. A Youth Advisory Board (YAB) provided guidance to enhance the research design and incorporate young people’s voices throughout the evaluation.
Key achievements across the funded UYOs included:
- 4,894 new adult volunteers recruited and 3,301 new leaders trained
- 798 new units and 23,741 new places created
- 56% of new places were created in areas of deprivation, in line with the Fund’s aim to address geographical disparities in youth provision
- 13,023 new young people joined
The Fund was an important ‘catalyst for change’ for UYOs involved. Central staff in the organisations reported key improvements in the volunteer experience, the ability to recruit and support more young volunteers and improving accessibility for their members.
The impact evaluation found evidence supporting the positive impact of UYO membership on young people’s wellbeing, social and emotional development, skills and attainment, and community connectedness.
An executive summary of the key findings across both reports can be viewed here.
A short video was also created by Dartington, which summarises the key findings from the impact evaluation:
