There’s confidence the Social Investment Fund is assisting organisations that will effectively help at-risk youth. 

It's allocating $50 million into programmes for children with parents in prison, those who’ve grown up in care, and under-13s suspended from school. 

Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis told Mike Hosking they're taking a different approach to previous governments, which spent billions of dollars with no results. 

She says they're using data, measuring outcomes, and holding organisations accountable – adding the fund will be scaled up, if it works. 

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