Introduction

Education is an essential part of human development and the years children and young people spend in school are some of the most important and formative years of their life. These years not only provide access to bodies of knowledge, but just as importantly  help develop the aptitudes, values, attitudes, competences and skills that will enable them to move from childhood to maturity as confident, resilient, flourishing people who enjoy good mental health and a sense of satisfaction, well being, worth and  purpose.

Whilst most young people are resilient and manage to succeed, others growing up amidst social and emotional deprivation may consider that they have few opportunities and that success through traditional routes is not an option for them. They reject school and education, seeking alternative routes to meet their ambitions and expectations, which may be unlawful and morally anti-social.

For several decades educators, policymakers and criminal justice professionals have attempted to identify effective anti social and crime prevention strategies. During this period there has been an emphasis on anti-social ‘behaviour’ and violence whilst attempts at controlling this through a variety of ‘get tough’ policies utilising behaviour modification practices involving various forms of punishment have proved to be ineffective.

What has been shown to be effective are approaches that  provide  quality education, together with mentoring support, conflict resolution, a safe environment  an effective and ethically based ethos/school climate and ways of  increasing student’s participation in the educative process at all levels. Such successful approaches are school/parent/community based and have been shown to be more likely to engage more young people and their families in such a developmental social process through shared values and social cohesion.

Therefore. providing all young people with the opportunities to develop positive values and pro social attitudes must be at the heart of all developmental efforts to prevent anti social behaviour which may lead to a possible life of crime and violence.  It is therefore essential to ensure that as many young people as possible fully engage in education, value the opportunities that it offers and thereby develop the personal qualities that will enable them to experience fulfilment and a life stance based on personal integrity and a sense of self worth.

Success for All is an intervention programme of 12 one hour sessions that promotes continued engagement in education by:

1. Encouraging the development of pro-social attitudes, perspective taking, emotional literacy, personal values and values clarification/realisation, sense of agency and responsibility, understanding of different social roles and cohesion and reductions in egocentric bias.

   2  Promoting the development of positive values about themselves inclusive of their personal          development, identity, commitment and their relationships with other wider communities.

   3. Developing a shared set of valued pro-social rights and goals which  motivate young                     people, together with a positive group and therapeutic culture capable of motivating good           relationships with their teachers.

In 2020 The Youth Endowment Fund provided a grant to enable Success for All to identify the Theory of Change which supports this thesis and  this was implemented by Professors Ann Higgins D’Alessandra (Fordham University, New York), Helen Haste (Professor Emeritus, University of Bath), Peter Langdon (University of Warwick) and David Rowse, (Chair, Values Education for Life), utilising the Early Intervention Foundation’s 10 Steps for Evaluation Success. These steps are listed on the next page.

The first five steps of this process are recorded in the following documentation and a further grant will be sought in order to complete the full evaluation.