Youth Endowment Fund calls for one pathway, one plan and one owner to protect children at risk of serious violence
One Pathway, One Plan, One Owner: What the Youth Endowment Fund's New Guidance Means for Safeguarding
The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) has published new national guidance aimed at helping children's services better protect children from involvement in violence across England and Wales. At the heart of the guidance is a simple but powerful recommendation: every child at risk of serious violence should have one safeguarding pathway, one plan, and one clearly identified professional responsible for overseeing their safety.
The guidance has been developed for senior leaders in children's services and sets out seven evidence-based recommendations focused on three key areas:
Strengthening safeguarding responses to extra-familial harm.
Improving access to evidence-based interventions.
Better protecting children in care from violence and exploitation.
For safeguarding professionals, the message is clear: children at risk of violence need coordinated protection, not fragmented systems.
Serious Violence Is a Safeguarding Issue
Traditionally, responses to violence have often been led by criminal justice agencies. However, the YEF guidance reinforces what many safeguarding professionals already recognise: children involved in violence are often vulnerable children who require safeguarding support.
The guidance highlights that nearly one in five young people aged 13–17 reported being a victim of violence in the previous year, while one in eight reported committing violence. Behind these statistics are children who may be experiencing exploitation, trauma, neglect, exclusion, poor mental health, or other vulnerabilities.
Violence rarely occurs in isolation. It is often linked to wider safeguarding concerns that require a coordinated multi-agency response.
Understanding Extra-Familial Harm
A central theme within the guidance is the need to strengthen responses to extra-familial harm (EFH).
Extra-familial harm refers to harm that occurs outside the family home, including child criminal exploitation, child sexual exploitation, serious youth violence, peer-on-peer abuse, and harm occurring within schools, neighbourhoods, or online environments.
The YEF argues that safeguarding responses to extra-familial harm should be treated as a core strategic priority rather than sitting alongside existing safeguarding arrangements as a separate process.
This is particularly significant because many children currently experience multiple assessments, meetings, and intervention plans across different services, often without a single coordinated approach.
Why "One Pathway, One Plan, One Owner" Matters
Perhaps the most significant recommendation is the call for an integrated safeguarding pathway that provides one overarching plan and one accountable lead professional for children affected by extra-familial harm.
From a safeguarding perspective, this addresses a challenge frequently identified in reviews and serious case discussions: fragmented systems can leave children falling through the gaps.
When multiple agencies are involved, responsibility can become diluted. Professionals may assume another service is leading the response, resulting in confusion, delays, or missed opportunities to intervene.
A clearly identified safeguarding lead helps ensure:
Risks are consistently monitored.
Agencies work towards shared outcomes.
Children's voices remain central to planning.
Accountability is clear.
Support is coordinated rather than duplicated.
Ultimately, safeguarding works best when everyone knows who is responsible for driving the plan forward.
The Importance of Evidence-Based Support
Alongside safeguarding reforms, the guidance calls for greater access to interventions proven to reduce children's involvement in violence.
These include:
High-quality mentoring.
Evidence-based parenting programmes.
Family therapy interventions.
Access to therapeutic support, including cognitive behavioural approaches.
This reflects an important safeguarding principle: intervention should not simply focus on managing risk but also on addressing the underlying factors that increase vulnerability.
Children need support that helps build resilience, strengthen relationships, improve wellbeing, and reduce the likelihood of future harm.
Protecting Children in Care
The guidance places particular emphasis on safeguarding children in care, recognising that care-experienced children can face increased risks of exploitation, instability, violence, and criminalisation.
Recommendations include:
Providing stable placements.
Embedding extra-familial harm assessments within care planning.
Delivering specialist training for foster carers and residential staff.
Reducing unnecessary criminalisation of children in care.
These recommendations reinforce the need for trauma-informed and relationship-based safeguarding approaches for some of the most vulnerable children in society.
What Organisations Should Consider
Whether you work in local authorities, education, health, youth services, social care, sport, or the voluntary sector, the guidance provides an opportunity to reflect on current safeguarding arrangements.
Key questions include:
Are safeguarding responses to extra-familial harm fully integrated into existing pathways?
Is accountability for children at risk always clear?
Do professionals understand their role within multi-agency safeguarding arrangements?
Are evidence-based interventions available and accessible?
How effectively are children in care protected from violence and exploitation?
At RLB Safeguarding Ltd, we welcome the YEF's focus on joined-up safeguarding practice. Children affected by violence need more than individual interventions; they need coordinated systems that place their safety, wellbeing, and long-term outcomes at the centre of decision-making.
One pathway, one plan, and one owner may sound simple, but for many vulnerable children it could make the difference between fragmented support and meaningful protection.
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