Policing is undergoing rapid transformation. As societies face new and more complex challenges, police workloads increasingly focus on managing risks of harm to vulnerable people. At the same time, public debate voicing concerns about police priorities is rising, driven by questions about what the police do and about legitimacy in the face of discriminatory practices. Dramatic increases in complex cases coupled with cuts to public services have resulted in the police frequently acting as 'the service of first resort', at the frontline of responding to urgent social problems such as mental illness, homelessness and exploitation. The presence of such vulnerabilities draw the police into responses alongside other service providers (such as health, social care and housing) often with little clarity of roles, boundaries or shared purpose. Simultaneously, the transformation of data and its use are beginning to reshape how public services operate. They raise new questions about how to work in ethical ways with data to understand and respond to vulnerability. These shifts in police-work are mirrored around the world and pose significant challenges to how policing is undertaken and how the police interact with other public services, as well as how policing affects vulnerable people who come into contact with services. The Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre aims to understand how vulnerabilities shape demand for policing and how partner organisations can prevent future harm and vulnerability through integrated public service partnerships. Rooted in rich local data collection and deep dives into specific problems, the Centre will build a knowledge base with applications and implications across the UK and beyond. It will have significant reach through collaborative work with a range of regional, national and international partners, shaping policy and practice through networks, practitioner exchanges and comparative research, and through training the next generation of scholars to take forward new approaches to vulnerabilities research and co-production with service providers, service receivers and the public. The Centre will be an international focal point for research, policy, practice and public debate. Jointly led by York and Leeds, with expertise from Durham, Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, UCL, Monash and Temple universities and the Police Foundation, and working with a network of 38 partners, it will explore fundamental questions regarding the role police and their partners should play in modern society. While focusing policing effort on the most vulnerable holds promise for a fairer society, targeting specific groups raises questions about who counts as vulnerable and has the potential to stigmatise and increase intervention in the lives of marginalised citizens. At a critical time of change for policing, the Centre will ensure that research, including evidence drawing on public opinion and the voices of vulnerable people, is at the heart of these debates. The Centre will undertake three interconnected strands of research. The first focuses on how vulnerability develops in urban areas, drawing together diverse public sector datasets (police, health, social services and education) to understand interactions between agencies and the potential to prevent vulnerabilities. The second explores how police and partners can best collaborate in response to specific vulnerabilities, including exploitation by County Lines drug networks, online child sexual exploitation, domestic abuse, modern slavery, mental illness and homelessness. The third will combine research into public opinion with a programme to embed research evidence into policy, practice and public debate, creating a new understanding of vulnerability and transforming capability to prevent harm and future vulnerabilities through integrated partnership working, reshaping the future of policing as a public service.

This research looks at what works in tackling poverty amongst young people (aged 16 to 25) who do not live in the parental home, with a focus on the role that housing providers can play. Measures to address poverty in this age group are delivered by a range of landlords and agencies that provide accommodation and housing related services. They include the provision of accommodation ranging from temporary supported housing to permanent long term housing. They can also provide advice and services including assistance with training and education and schemes to facilitate access to the private rented sector. The research will investigate the feasibility of implementing successful measures across the UK. The long term impact of the research should be a reduction in poverty amongst young people in the UK. Young people in poverty will therefore be the ultimate beneficiaries. They will have a variety of personal circumstances, such as being homeless and out of work and not in education, or in low paid work but unable to access decent housing. The research should lead to an increase in good practice that improves the quality, scale and effectiveness of the housing and related services provided to young people in poverty. In working towards this impact, in the shorter and medium term the research will benefit housing providers and policy makers wishing to implement measures to address poverty among young people. They will benefit from the evidence of actions that can tackle poverty successfully. The academic community will benefit from the research through the new body of evidence on what kinds of poverty interventions work, contributing to academic debates and addressing gaps in the evidence. A desk based literature review will examine evidence of the impact of selected housing interventions for young people in the UK and in other countries. An online survey of housing providers in Europe will extend the knowledge of actions that work throughout Europe. Quantitative analysis of housing and youth poverty in the UK, using secondary data, will examine current practice in rent settings for properties occupied by young single people and will use census data from 1971 to 2011 to assess the impact of housing policy measures on young people's well-being. The impact on increased employability and income will be evaluated using novel econometric techniques and the consequences of housing for fuel costs and disposable income will be assessed. Case studies of selected organisations will show what housing providers can do to tackle poverty and what the consequences are for young people. The research will focus on schemes that have the potential to alleviate poverty by reducing housing and living costs including fuel bills, increasing incomes by improving employability, locating housing near to jobs, increasing the capacity for unsupported and supported independent living and tackling the wider factors that are both cause and consequences of poverty. CCHPR has four partners in this research. They have helped to develop the proposal and will be directly involved in the research and its dissemination. Their involvement will focus and extend the impact of the research. Centrepoint is the UK's leading charity for homeless young people, supporting 16-25 years olds with housing, learning, health and life skills. The Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust provides housing and a variety of care and support services in Yorkshire and the North East of England. Community Housing Cymru (CHC) is the representative body for housing associations and community mutuals in Wales, all not-for profit organisations. The European Federation of Public, Cooperative & Social Housing organisations (CECODHAS) is a network of 41 national & regional federations with about 41,400 providers in 19 countries.