Abstract
Remedi’s RM is a well-defined intervention, and the mentoring component was delivered with fidelity in this pilot trial. Young people in the intervention group who started the programme worked with Remedi mentors on coagreed action plans and received an average of 11.6 contacts over 12 weeks. The RJ and restorative-based family support were less utilised than anticipated.
Remedi failed to reach the recruitment target set at the outset of the project, recruiting 119 out of a target of 348 (34%). This was largely due to a slow start to recruitment, in part due to some boroughs being more reluctant to participate in an RCT. Recruitment did improve as the project progressed, and the evaluator is confident there are enough eligible young people to participate in a larger trial.
Outcomes were feasible to collect. Seventy-four per cent of young people in the study provided SDQ and SRDS data, and Remedi mentors provided effective support to young people to complete these surveys. Matching of police administrative data also proved feasible.
Stakeholders, including young people, families/carers and referrers, valued the relationship that mentors established with young people. In interviews, these groups praised the mentors’ accepting style coupled with their abilities to challenge thinking and behaviours.
The evaluator judges that a larger efficacy trial is feasible and suggests a sample size of 502 children and young people where the number of participants is selected based on evaluations of similar interventions and is such that the trial has sufficient statistical power to detect small or moderate improvements in the RM intervention compared to the RC intervention.
Remedi failed to reach the recruitment target set at the outset of the project, recruiting 119 out of a target of 348 (34%). This was largely due to a slow start to recruitment, in part due to some boroughs being more reluctant to participate in an RCT. Recruitment did improve as the project progressed, and the evaluator is confident there are enough eligible young people to participate in a larger trial.
Outcomes were feasible to collect. Seventy-four per cent of young people in the study provided SDQ and SRDS data, and Remedi mentors provided effective support to young people to complete these surveys. Matching of police administrative data also proved feasible.
Stakeholders, including young people, families/carers and referrers, valued the relationship that mentors established with young people. In interviews, these groups praised the mentors’ accepting style coupled with their abilities to challenge thinking and behaviours.
The evaluator judges that a larger efficacy trial is feasible and suggests a sample size of 502 children and young people where the number of participants is selected based on evaluations of similar interventions and is such that the trial has sufficient statistical power to detect small or moderate improvements in the RM intervention compared to the RC intervention.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Youth Endowment Fund |
| Number of pages | 121 |
| Publication status | Published - 26 Jan 2024 |