Evaluation of the Creating Opportunities Forum (COF) programme

Product Description

The Creating Opportunities Forum (COF) programme was funded by a joint HM Treasury bid by the Home Office and the Department for Work and Pensions. COF aimed to bridge the gap to employment for vulnerable young people by providing wraparound support, offering employment-related opportunities, helping to build confidence among young people on their abilities and talent to become ‘work ready’, and consequently deter them from violent crime. COF operated in 12 local authority (LA) areas and sought to achieve 3 key outcomes:

• reduction in violence and crime among individuals in the programme
• engagement in employment-related activity among individuals in the programme
• improvements in overall physical and mental wellbeing of the individuals involved

The programme worked with young people aged 16 to 24 deemed to be ‘at risk’ based on a range of criteria. Young people identified as ‘at risk’ could opt in to the support offered by COF, through referrals by local agencies or by self-referral.

In September 2021, the Home Office commissioned RSM UK Consulting to evaluate the COF programme (October 2021 to March 2023). The aims of the evaluation were to:

• conduct a robust process and impact evaluation of activity undertaken by the consortium of delivery organisations
• continuously feed into the programme of services offered by the consortium and work collaboratively with them to ensure best practice, and implement any changes needed to achieve the aims of the COF

The mixed-methods evaluation, underpinned by a programme-level Theory of Change (ToC), included a literature review, qualitative research with COF participants and various stakeholders including delivery staff, review and analysis of monitoring information (MI) collected by the consortium through Catch22’s online case management system, Aptem, and a pre-/post-participant survey.