A research study of youth mentoring
| ISRCTN | ISRCTN76496069 |
|---|---|
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN76496069 |
| Secondary identifying numbers | Protocol version 1.0 |
- Submission date
- 22/03/2023
- Registration date
- 28/03/2023
- Last edited
- 11/11/2024
- Recruitment status
- No longer recruiting
- Overall study status
- Completed
- Condition category
- Other
Plain English summary of protocol
Background and study aims
Most rigorous impact evaluations focus on well-defined manualised programmes or interventions, delivered at a single site or by a single organisation. However, the core business of youth agencies tends to be delivered by small, local, and often voluntary organisations and consists of non-manualised, yet widespread, approaches such as mentoring and semi-structured group recreational activities. This means both that the evidence base does not fully reflect the actual work of youth agencies, and that many well-evidenced interventions are not suitable for mainstream delivery in youth work. To address this imbalance, this study aims to test the feasibility of engaging multiple small youth organisations in a high-quality evaluation of a common and promising but under-evaluated provision: mentoring. The study aims to study the impact of short-term mentoring on the social and emotional learning skills of young people at risk of youth violence. It also aims to generate important learning about how to undertake multi-site trials with youth organisations and of non-manualised practices.
Who can participate?
Young people who exhibit at least one of the Youth Endowment Fund-listed risk factors for youth violence, aged between 10 and 14 years, or up to 17 years by exception, with no more than 30% of the young people aged 15 to 17 years per youth agency
What does the study involve?
Participants are randomly allocated to the intervention group or the wait-list control group. The treatment group will receive one-on-one mentoring through 12 weekly sessions of at least 45 minutes in addition to services as usual. The control group will receive services as usual from the youth agency, and will then be enrolled into mentoring after 12 weeks. The mentoring will be provided by adult paid mentors. Data will be collected at baseline and at a 12-week follow-up. An implementation process evaluation will also be undertaken to assess the feasibility and acceptability of both the trial arrangements and the shared practice model.
What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
The benefits include better social and emotional learning skills for young people. Specific benefits will accrue to the youth agency through the delivery of a shared-practice model of mentoring helping build the knowledge base and capacity within these agencies. There are no risks from participating in the study.
Where is the study run from?
Centre for Evidence and Implementation (UK)
When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
December 2022 to January 2024
Who is funding the study?
Youth Endowment Fund (UK)
Who is the main contact?
Jane Lewis, Jane.lewis@ceiglobal.org
Contact information
Principal Investigator
Centre for Evidence and Implementation
Evidence Quarter
94-96 Petty France
London
SW1H 9EA
United Kingdom
| Phone | +44 (0)20 8175 1313 |
|---|---|
| jane.lewis@ceiglobal.org |
Study information
| Study design | Two-arm randomized controlled multi-site trial |
|---|---|
| Primary study design | Interventional |
| Secondary study design | Randomised controlled trial |
| Study setting(s) | Charity/Voluntary sector, Community, School |
| Study type | Efficacy |
| Participant information sheet | Not available in web format, please use contact details to request a participant information sheet |
| Scientific title | Impacts of a short-term mentoring model for young people: a multi-site randomized controlled trial |
| Study objectives | The primary research hypothesis for this impact evaluation is: 1. Short-term mentoring to have a positive impact on the social and emotional learning skills of young people at risk of youth violence, compared with services as usual. The process and implementation evaluation aims to further probe two questions: 2. What is the feasibility of running a multi-site trial with small, local, and independent youth agencies, and what support is required? 3. What is the feasibility of delivering the shared practice model across all youth agencies participating in the efficacy trial? |
| Ethics approval(s) |
Approved 12/01/2023, University of Cumbria Research Ethics Committee (Research and Knowledge Exchange, University of Cumbria, Fusehill Street, Carlisle, CA1 2HH, United Kingdom; +44 (0)1228 400362 ext: 8362; colette.conroy@cumbria.ac.uk), ref: 22/32 |
| Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied | Social and emotional skills |
| Intervention | Randomization will be at the individual level after stratifying on youth agencies (multi-sites) using a merged block randomization procedure automated software built into the study data portal. No masking procedure is followed. There are two study arms with a 1:1 allocation: 1. Treatment Arm: Young people receive a shared practice model of mentoring on a one-to-one basis in the form of 12 sessions of at least 45 minutes over the course of 12 weeks. Sessions will be by a paid adult mentor at the youth agency, over and above 'service as usual' provided by the agency. 2. Control Arm: Young people receive 'service as usual' provided by the youth agency while being on a 12-week wait list for one-to-one mentoring. They will then receive the shared practice model of mentoring as described above. |
| Intervention type | Behavioural |
| Primary outcome measure | Social and emotional skills measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to be administered at baseline prior to randomisation and again at 12-15 weeks after randomisation, which marks the end of the mentoring intervention for the intervention group and the end of the waiting period for the control group. |
| Secondary outcome measures | 1. Self-confidence 2. Problem solving and decision making 3. Teamwork and social skills building 4. Emotional regulation and resilience All measures will be measured using the Evaluation of the National Citizen Service, to be administered at baseline prior to the baseline and again at 12-15 weeks after randomisation which marks the end of the mentoring intervention for the intervention group and the end of the waiting period for the control group. |
| Overall study start date | 06/12/2022 |
| Completion date | 31/01/2024 |
Eligibility
| Participant type(s) | Other |
|---|---|
| Age group | Child |
| Lower age limit | 10 Years |
| Upper age limit | 17 Years |
| Sex | Both |
| Target number of participants | 850 |
| Total final enrolment | 744 |
| Key inclusion criteria | The eligibility criteria for the recruitment of young people to the efficacy trial will be: 1. Young people aged between 10 and 14 years, or up to 17 years by exception, with no more than 30% of the young people aged 15 to 17 years per youth agency 2. Young people exhibit at least one of the Youth Endowment Fund-listed risk factors for youth violence 3. Youth agency deems the young person at a suitable level of need to benefit from 12 weeks of mentoring and not to be put at risk if allocated to the waiting list |
| Key exclusion criteria | The only exclusion criterion is if a young person is facing immediate risk or crisis, or if being on a waiting list would be potentially harmful. Youth agencies are responsible for determining the threshold of cases that they put forward for the trial. |
| Date of first enrolment | 01/03/2023 |
| Date of final enrolment | 31/08/2023 |
Locations
Countries of recruitment
- England
- United Kingdom
- Wales
Study participating centres
Radlett
WD7 7ER
United Kingdom
Ewell
Epsom
KT19 9XF
United Kingdom
7 Barton Buildings
Bath
BA1 2JR
United Kingdom
Featherstone Terrace
Southall
UB2 5AL
United Kingdom
50 Cotton Lane
Osmaston
Derby
DE24 8GG
United Kingdom
Harehills
Leeds
LS8 5LN
United Kingdom
Chantry Road
Norwich
NR2 1RF
United Kingdom
Curran Road
Cardiff
CF10 5NB
United Kingdom
Silver Street
Bristol
BS1 2AG
United Kingdom
Puma Way
Coventry
CV1 2TT
United Kingdom
Ashton-under-Lyne
OL6 6AS
United Kingdom
Suffolk Road
Croydon
SE25 6EG
United Kingdom
Didcot
OX11 7HJ
United Kingdom
Pendeford
Wolverhampton
WV8 1TX
United Kingdom
113 Queens Road
Brighton
BN1 3XG
United Kingdom
Pontypridd
CF37 5BP
United Kingdom
51 Kyffin Place
Bradford
BD4 8NB
United Kingdom
Sponsor information
Charity
64 Great Eastern Street
1st Floor
London
EC2A 3QR
England
United Kingdom
| Phone | +44 (0)7414 405031 |
|---|---|
| Daniel.Acquah@youthendowmentfund.org.uk | |
| Website | https://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/ |
Funders
Funder type
Charity
No information available
Results and Publications
| Intention to publish date | 31/10/2024 |
|---|---|
| Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share | Yes |
| IPD sharing plan summary | Stored in publicly available repository |
| Publication and dissemination plan | Planned publication of the evaluation report on Youth Endowment Fund website after their internal peer review stage. |
| IPD sharing plan | The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study will be stored in a publicly available repository. Individual-level outcomes data will be deposited to the ONS after being anonymised by the Department for Education, which will replace identifying information with the DfE's pupil-matching reference numbers. This data will be available after the publication of the final report and be retained by the ONS indefinitely for future research into the impact of Youth Endowment Fund funded interventions. ONS-accredited researchers would be able to access the data through an application to the Youth Endowment Fund (the funder of this study). Information on data archiving is provided to participants in the participant information sheet and Data Privacy Notice and all participants provide informed consent before participation in the trial. |
Study outputs
| Output type | Details | Date created | Date added | Peer reviewed? | Patient-facing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protocol (other) | 01/03/2023 | 31/03/2023 | No | No | |
| Protocol file | 01/03/2023 | 31/03/2023 | No | No | |
| Protocol file | version 1.2 | 09/10/2023 | 11/10/2023 | No | No |
| Funder report results | version 24 | 11/11/2024 | 11/11/2024 | No | No |
Additional files
Editorial Notes
11/11/2024: Funder report added.
12/09/2024: The intention to publish date was changed from 30/09/2024 to 31/10/2024
17/01/2024: The following changes have been made:
1. The overall study end date was changed from 15/01/2024 to 31/01/2024.
2. The intention to publish date was changed from 30/04/2024 to 30/09/2024.
11/10/2023: The following changes have been made:
1. Protocol (not peer-reviewed) uploaded.
2. The study type(s) Other was replaced with efficacy
3. The overall study end date was changed from 15/12/2023 to 15/01/2024
4. The target number of participants was changed from 425 to 850
5. The total final enrolment was added.
31/03/2023: The following changes have been made:
1. The study website has been added.
2. The study protocol has been linked and uploaded.
29/03/2023: Internal review.
27/03/2023: Trial's existence confirmed by the Youth Endowment Fund.
