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Jon Yates

@jonyates.bsky.social

Write on leadership, violence, community, education. Lead Youth Endowment Fund. Board Ofsted, Children’s Commissioner, UK Youth.

355 Followers  |  51 Following  |  126 Posts  |  Joined: 03.02.2024  |  2.2634

Latest posts by jonyates.bsky.social on Bluesky

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I got up early to beat the heat. Not crazy fast but I won’t lie - am feeling knackered, hot and (yes) a little smug.

13.07.2025 06:46 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Date 3: 9th September 2024 👇 (6/6) #violenceisnotinevitable #YouthEndowmentFund

06.06.2025 14:10 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Date 2: 6th September 1976 👇 (5/6)

06.06.2025 14:10 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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... the chance chance to tell the story of three dates and how to fix knife crime. Date 1: 8th January 2019 👇 (4/6)

06.06.2025 14:10 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

a story of me being at an event with Idris last year, "I remember Idris being there," I said, "as I don't often meet movie stars. He won't remember me being there as he often meets gingers". Cue laughter and an unexpected heckle calling me cool. But what mattered more was ... (3/6)

06.06.2025 14:10 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

It all started because his charity was hosting at an event. They foolishly asked me to talk about halving knife crime. So, I led with a confession. I was never cool at school (come on, at least pretend you're shocked!) and finished with ... (2/6)

06.06.2025 14:10 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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This was the week I got called cool by Idris Elba.

As a generally uncool chap (I mean, who says 'chap'?), this came as a bit of a shock. I think I may retire. How did it happen? Well ... (1/6)

06.06.2025 14:10 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Hadn’t read that piece before Gavin. Is excellent. Thanks for sharing.

25.05.2025 17:15 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

All of this is a reminder that violence is not inevitable. We can change things IF we follow the evidence of what works...

19.05.2025 06:47 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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At the heart of this was Jonathan Shepherd who designed the approach (the 'Cardiff Model'). Brilliant to see - especially as Jonathan is chair of YEF's Grants and Evaluation Committee.

19.05.2025 06:47 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

2. Cardiff has managed to significantly reduce violence in the night-time economy. How? Central to it has been using A&E data to work out where violence is happening and then getting the council and police to spot things they can change.

19.05.2025 06:47 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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GOOD NEWS: YEF is funding Focused Deterrence to happen here in the UK and funding a huge evaluation to test the impact.

19.05.2025 06:47 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

How do we reduce violence? Two articles in the Economist provide hope!

1. Violence almost halved in some parts of US over last year. Why? The Economist thinks targeted support & police focus on those most involved in group-based violence is the key, through a programme called Focused Deterrence.

19.05.2025 06:47 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Schools in England and Wales urged to teach relationship violence prevention Youth Endowment Fund says specialised lessons needed to tackle issues such as abuse, consent and coercion

Good day today. Great to see YEF’s call for change across Guardian, Telegraph, BBC, Independent, Evening Standard. Violence is not inevitable. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

01.05.2025 16:43 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Yep. I think (exclude vs don’t exclude) it’s a simpler and more exciting debate to join if we don’t have a lot of knowledge about schools. But is bonkers!

01.05.2025 08:23 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

100%. Managed moves, reduced timetables, turning a blind eye. There’s always a danger that if you press down on the right to exclude, the child is excluded anyway but without the need to provide Alternative Provision

01.05.2025 08:21 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Great to see these bold youth violence prevention systems and policy recommendations. Those of us in the drugs field should be making similar calls for evidence-based prevention and population-level early intervention investment. Prevention work is not a 'nice to have', but a 'must have'.

01.05.2025 07:58 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

BUT the weird thing about this heated debate is that there is massive consensus that we should do more to support children pre exclusion and post exclusion. Amidst the heat, this light gets lost. I'd love us all to focus more there.

01.05.2025 08:04 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

At low levels due to i) the causal path from violence to exclusion, ii) the correlation between those likely to commit violence and those likely to be excluded.

01.05.2025 08:04 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Do School Exclusions Increase Crime? | Blog | BIT The Behavioural Insights Team investigates the question ‘Do School Exclusions Increase Crime’. Referring to research and reports conducted by BIT.

ii) indication of cause here: www.bi.team/blogs/do-sch...

01.05.2025 08:04 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

b)causation is Unproven, Likely and At low levels. Unproven as RCT impossible and limited high quality studies. Likely as i) theory makes sense that a loss of school as a protective factor leads to more time available, on average less access to support and positive peers;

01.05.2025 08:04 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Hi Gavin, our view would be a) correlation is clearly true: therefore we should prioritise evidence-based support to children suspended and excluded (hence this recommendation) AND those at risk of being perm excluded,

01.05.2025 08:04 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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