Healthy Relationships in Schools: VAWG Prevention

Violence Against Women and Girls Prevention Programme (up to £20,000)

Promoting Healthy and Respectful Relationships in Secondary Schools.

Finding out what works to prevent violence against young women and girls (VAWG) is a key part of delivering on YEF’s mission to prevent children and young people from becoming involved in violence. It is also central to the cross-government strategy “Freedom from Violence and Abuse” that was published in December 2025.

This funding round forms part of a wider YEF programme of funding, evaluation and research over the next three years on what works to prevent and respond to VAWG.

Objective1: Promoting Healthy and Respectful Relationships in Secondary Schools

Introduction

We know that supporting children and young people to develop the skillsand understanding they need to build healthy and respectful relationships is an important early step to preventing the emergence of harmful behaviours in relationships-including physical, emotional and sexual abuse in relationships, coercive or controlling behaviour, harassment and exploitation, including online and technology-facilitated abuse.

This is whythe Department for Education and the Home Officehave partnered with YEFto launch this funding round.We areseekingtofund interventions andgenerate robust evidence on how secondary schools can best be supported to deliver healthy relationships content, improve young people’s knowledge and attitudes towards healthy relationships and harmful behaviours, and ultimately reduce violence against women and girls. This aligns with both Pillar 1: Prevention and early intervention in cross-government strategy on VAWG, and the Department of Education’s roll-out of revised statutory Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) curriculum in September 2026.

What we’re looking to fund

Weareinvitingapplications across two strands:

Strand 1:Buildingschool capacityinternallyon healthy relationshipsdelivery

Projectsthatstrengthen theconfidence,skillsandcapacity of secondary school staff to deliveruniversal,high-qualitycontent around healthy and respectful relationshipsas part of thenew Relationship, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) curriculum.We would expect these interventionsto:

• Primarily focus on providing trainingand supportfor teacherson dealingwith sensitive topicsin some orall ofthe areas ofRespectful Relationships, Online Safety and Awareness, Being Safe and Intimate and Romantic Relationships in theRSHEcurriculum.
• Wewillconsiderinterventionsthat cover the above but also include wider school approaches designed to strengthenschool culture, leadership and systems around healthy relationships(such as the integration of healthy relationship topicsin other subjects, wider teacher training or awareness campaigns across the school).

Strand 2:Delivery ofhealthy relationships contentof RSHE by external providers

Projectsbyexperienced,external specialist providersto deliver universal healthy relationships contentinthe new RSHE curriculumdirectlyto young people in secondary schools(some orall ofthe topics of Respectful Relationships, Online Safety and Awareness, Being Safe and Intimate and Romantic Relationships).

Applicants should have some prior experiencein delivering the proposed project model. Projects must be delivered inEngland, andwork with young people aged 11-16 in secondary school settings.

Please note that we are planning a further funding round in the summer that will focusonsupportingschoolswithtargeted interventionsforyoung people to respond to inappropriate and problematic behaviours around teenage relationships (prior to these reaching the threshold where intervention from other statutory agencies, such as police or social care, is required).

Scale of the evaluation

We will beseekingtofund and evaluateeach project selected.We’llbe prioritising projects and organisations that are able to reach enough participants and schools to support a robust impact evaluation. Please see the eligibility criteria below for more detailsand the application guidance for details of YEF’s evaluation approach and expectations of projects.

Information webinar

YEF hosted awebinar on this Objective, covering the aims of the funding round, key requirements for applicants, and practical guidance on the application and assessment process, including partnerships, evaluation design, and budgeting. The session also included a substantial Q&A.

Estimated timeline

Theseare expectedtimelines based onprevioussimilar projects and evaluations, butindividual project timelines for school recruitment and delivery may vary.

The full eligibility requirements are summarised belowandexplained in more detail in the Application Guidance. Please ensureyourinterventionmeets all these requirementsbeforeproceedingwith anapplication.

• Location: yourinterventionmust be delivered in England.
• Your organisation: your organisation must be a registered charity, company, statutorybodyor CIC.
• Activities: interventions must fit within one of the strands listed within this guidance.
• Target schools and children: interventions must support outcomes for children and young peopleaged 11-16, in state secondary schools.
• Outcomes: we’reprimarily interested ininterventions that are focused on reducing violence against women and girls and harmful behaviours in teenage relationships over the long term.Within thetimeframesof the delivery and evaluation, interventions should aim to change children’sknowledge and attitudes around healthy relationships, gendernormsand harmful behaviours in teenage relationships.
• Scale:You must be able to reach enoughschoolsto support a robust and meaningful evaluation. We estimate that this will involve:
• Strand 1: Deliveryof theinterventiontoone or more yeargroups in30 secondary schools (withanother30 schools beinga control groupwhere existing practice is continued)
• Strand 2:Delivery of theintervention toone or more yeargroupsacross20-30 schools (depending on theevaluation design, a further 30 schools may alsobe needed for the control group where existing practice is continued)

The exact numberrequiredwill depend on the final evaluation design, but applicants will need todemonstratetheir capacity to deliver at this scale.

• Timeline: This delivery in schoolsis likely to start inSeptember 2027 and must be finished byDecember 2028 at the latest.
• Willingness to engage in an independent evaluation: YEF exists to better understand what works to prevent children and young people from becoming involved in violence. To help us achieve this, you will need to work with an evaluation partner throughout yourintervention.You’llneed to agree tocertain evaluation tools and approachesto ensure the most robust evaluation can take place, including thatparticipatingschools(or, in some cases, yeargroups)will be randomly allocated between intervention and control groups.
• Readiness for evaluation:We are looking forinterventions which are ready to be evaluated via an impact study. Please see the criteria in the“Readiness for evaluation” section of the Guidance.
• Track record:We will assessorganisations’capacity tosupport childrenand young people atthe kind ofscales mentioned above.Your organisationshouldalsohave experienceofdelivering your proposed intervention model(at least a year).We will fundinterventions looking to scale, expand or explore different modes of delivery,as long asthey candemonstratetheexpertiseand experience tofacilitatethis.

Frequentlyaskedquestions

An FAQ document can be found here. The document will be regularly updated across the funding call: VAWG Objective 1: FAQ

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