‘Valuing Youth Diversion: A toolkit for practitioners’ is an incredibly valuable resource for Levelling the Playing Field delivery partners seeking an evidence base to underpin their work and looking to make a strong case for continued investment.

The toolkit, produced by the Centre for Justice Innovation, is aimed at any practitioner who is involved in, or considering creating, a point-of-arrest diversion scheme for young people in contact with the Criminal Justice System.

It firstly lays out the research case for youth diversion initiatives and then gives practical advice from commissioners of youth diversion on what they want to hear from practitioners. This includes guidance on demonstrating cost effectiveness to the police and courts system.

As well as providing crucial information and advice, the toolkit sets out the evidence that youth diversion works, the principles of effective practice and includes a cost-avoidance tool.

To access the toolkit, click here.

Blog: Levelling the Playing Field researcher Morgan Mitchell has analysed the data in the Centre for Justice Innovation's report, Equal diversion? Racial Disproportionality in Youth Diversion which is very useful for Levelling the Playing Field delivery partners seeking an evidence base for their programmes with ethnically diverse children. Read Morgan's blog here.

About the Centre for Justice Innovation: they support evidence-led pre-court diversion to keep communities safer. They provide free training, consultancy and practice sharing to YOTs and police forces, and also work to build the evidence base.

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