Improving risk practice in Scotland: Evaluation of START:AV training

Following a review of risk practice in youth justice in Scotland and the risk assessment tools available, the decision was made to introduce the Short Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability: Adolescent Version (START:AV) into practice and to provide training in this tool across Scotland.

Since 2018, a total of 440 staff have attended START:AV training across 18 different training events. Staff have been trained from 31 local authority areas, three secure care centres, six third sector organisations, the National Health Service and the Risk Management Authority.

To better understand the impact of this training on the knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence of practitioners, and gather feedback on the START:AV tool, CYCJ undertook an evaluation exercise. The results from the evaluation indicate that the training has had a positive impact in relation to four areas of risk practice: structured professional judgment risk assessment tools, risk formulation, risk management planning and the START:AV itself. Improvements across all these areas from pre to post training were statistically significant with large effect sizes.