The circumstances of young people in the UK are changing rapidly, in terms of how they spend their time and the choices they make. The transition period between childhood and adulthood has grown, youth engagement in a range of risky behaviours has increased and the education and labour market options faced by young people have changed dramatically.

CAYT started life as a research centre, funded by the Department for Education, comprising researchers from the Institute of Education, NatCen Social Research and the Institute for Fiscal Studies. CAYT produced new research on topics relating to youth transitions, including around teenage pregnancy, drug use and the drivers of education choices, which can be found on the publications section of the website.

It also set up the CAYT database. The aim of this database is to draw together evidence on ‘what works’ in terms of policies designed to assist young people in their transitions from education to work, as well as reducing engagement in risky behaviours.

Since April 2015 CAYT has been managed by Mentor, as part of the Alcohol and Drug Education and Prevention Information Service (ADEPIS).

Thank you so much! It’s been a pleasure to work with you on this process. We’ve done a number of similar reviews with other agencies, and your review was one of the more thorough and thoughtful ones that we’ve been involved with!

– Jamila Reid, Ph.D. (Director of Operations, The Incredible Years)

Who is CAYT for?

This databse will be important for two types of stakeholders:

Firstly, some users, including those commissioning services or programmes for young people, will want to browse the Virtual Library to obtain evidence of what really works to improve outcomes.

Secondly, those who deliver or evaluate services or programmes for young people will want to have their evaluation studies assessed for impact and quality and then stored in the database so that users can know whether their service has genuine impact.

Users can search the database to find an assessment of the impact and quality of a particular study, programme or intervention.

Standards of Evidence

CAYT’s primary aim is to provide education and prevention practitioners with evidence of what has proved – or is promising – to be of good practice; to highlight those programmes showing high effectiveness and rigorous evidence.

CAYT houses a database of quality-assured studies that assess the impact and effectiveness of programmes and services supporting the development of young people; these may be delivered in a range of settings, including education settings.

In 2015 we revised the original CAYT scoring system.