PCD 1204 Disproportionality Challenge Fund: Grant Awards for Custody App and Cultural Competency Training

PCD 1204  Disproportionality Challenge Fund: Grant Awards for Custody App and Cultural Competency Training 

In February 2021, MOPAC launched The Action Plan to Tackle Disproportionality in Youth Justice. Along with the actions, that were developed with youth justice partners and London Councils, MOPAC put together a Challenge Fund of £700,000 (Decision PCD 938) to support the delivery of these actions as well as to develop and trial innovative approaches for tackling disproportionality in Youth Justice.   

This Decision refers to two projects which have been identified as opportunities to progress actions from the Youth Justice Action Plan. 

This decision seeks agreement to: 

• Award a grant of up to £70,000 to the University of Nottingham as a direct award to support the development, user testing, and implementation of an app for children in police custody. A direct award justification paper was approved by MOPAC Procurement, Contracts and Grants Oversight Board. 

• Award a grant of up to £120,000 to Camden Local Authority to act as lead Local Authority to procure cultural competency training for Youth Justice Management Boards across London. 

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve the award of up to £70,000 to the University of Nottingham to support the development and implementation of an app for children in police custody. 

2. Approve the award of up to £120,000 to Camden Local Authority to procure cultural competency training for London Youth Justice Management Boards. 

PART I - NON-CONFIDENTIAL FACTS AND ADVICE TO THE DMPC 

1. Introduction and background  

1. London’s Tackling Ethnic Disproportionality in Youth Justice Action Plan was launched in February 2021. The Action Plan includes a significant number of actions from partners across the youth justice system (YJS) covering the full spectrum of a child’s interaction with the system.  

2. Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) children are overrepresented at every stage of the YJS. While the overall number of children offending, reoffending and being sent to custody has decreased over the past ten years, the proportion of children from ethnic minority backgrounds has risen significantly. In 2019 the proportion of minority ethnic children in Young Offender Institutions across England and Wales reached 51%. The figure was 25% in 2009. 

3. The MOPAC Challenge Fund will be used to contribute to initiatives responding to disproportionality. The total value of the fund is £700,000 with for the intention for spend in 2022/2023. This decision asks for approval for a total of £190,000 of the Challenge Fund. The award of the remaining funding will be covered in a further Decision. 

4. The first recommendation concerns funding for the development of an app to provide children with accessible animations explaining their rights and the processes in police custody. This was one of the main actions identified in the action plan. It is hoped that the app will increase trust in the police and lawyers.  

5. The second recommendation concerns funding for cultural competency training for Youth Justice Management Boards (YJMBs). A common theme in discussion with partners has been the need for cultural competency training for Youth Justice Management Boards (YJMBs) across the London Boroughs. The need for this training has been championed by the London Youth Justice Strategic Leaders and has the support of partners including London Councils and the Youth Justice Board (YJB). Camden Local Authority will act as the lead Local Authority to procure this training for YJMBs across London.  

2. Issues for consideration  

Custody app development 

1. A single source request for this work has been approved by MOPAC Procurement, Contracts, and Grants Oversight Board. This is because an app is already under development at the University of Nottingham which is part-funded by the Nuffield Foundation, YJB and Impact Accelerator Award.  

2. Being arrested and coming into police custody can in itself be a teachable moment at which children can be deterred from future offending. However, during the development of the Action Plan, young people with lived experience told MOPAC that they didn’t understand their options, rights or the process within police custody. The app under development provides children in police custody with accessible information on processes and their rights, including the right to access legal advice.   

3. Investment from MOPAC will not only accelerate the development and implementation of the app in London custody suites, it will ensure that London-specific needs are included in the development work by funding a project manager who will carry out user testing with London children and practitioners. User testing with children from ethnic minority backgrounds will be particularly important in helping to inform the creation of digital resources focusing on the needs of those children. Funding would also be allocated to reimburse young people for their time in contributing to the app development. The proposed spend by MOPAC will also go to the developers for the creation of a hub of digital resources.  

4. MOPAC funding will enable MOPAC to ensure that there is a greater focus on disproportionality within the app content and implementation. Contributing to the development of this app will avoid duplication and deliver value for money by combining resources with those already put into the development of the app by Nottingham University.  

Youth Justice Management Board Training 

5. Grant funding to Camden Local Authority to procure cultural competency training for YJMBs across London will enable senior strategic leaders in the YJMBs (including senior strategic partners – police, Health, probation, health, Children’s services and Education plus local partners) to explore overrepresentation, inequality and racism within the youth justice system.  

6. Outcomes of the training will include improving understanding of practice informed by cultural competence, enhancing understanding of structural violence, systemic inequality and the causes of distrust by marginalised groups of organisations and institutions. Attention will also be given to areas where leaders and practitioners have influence, experience. This training is targeted towards strategic leaders is because of the recognised need to tackle systemic, structural and institutional causes of disproportionality. Leadership development will, in turn, lead to systemic change and impact on frontline provision.  

7. MOPAC will work with colleagues from Camden Local Authority to refine a specification for training. Camden Local Authority will complete procurement to identify and external provider to deliver the training in the Summer and Autumn of 2022.   

3. Financial Comments  

1. The total budget requirement for this work totals £190,000.  The programme will be funded from within the Disproportionality Challenge Fund budget. The budget was committed in PCD 938. 

2. A breakdown of planned expenditure is as below: 

4. Legal Comments  

1. MOPAC’s general powers are set out in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act  2011 (the 2011 Act). Section 3(6) of the 2011 Act provides that MOPAC must “secure  the maintenance of the metropolitan police service and secure that the metropolitan  police service is efficient and effective.” Under Schedule 3, paragraph 7 MOPAC has  wide incidental powers to “do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive  or incidental to, the exercise of the functions of the Office.” Paragraph 7(2) (a) provides that this includes entering into contracts and other agreements. 

2. Paragraph 4.8 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve all bids for grant funding. 

3. The delegation of responsibility for the finalisation of planning and contractual/grant  arrangements, including relevant terms and the signing of agreements, to the Chief  Operating Officer is in accordance with the general power of delegation in paragraph 1.7. 

4. Officers must ensure that the Financial Regulations and Contract Regulations are complied with. 

5. Officers should ensure that the funding agreements are put in place with and executed by MOPAC and each of the providers or recipients before any commitment to fund is made. 

6. Officers confirm that sufficient assurance has been carried out to this Decision to determine that the DMPC has legal authority to agree the recommendations 

5. Commercial Issues  

1. The award of grant funding to Camden Local Authority is not commercially sensitive. It will also be discussed at the MOPAC Procurement Contracts and Grants Oversight Board for compliance and Governance Purposes. 

2. The direct award of funds to the University of Nottingham has been approved by the MOPAC Procurement Contracts and Grants Oversight Board as there is only one suitable supplier for this work and a procurement process was therefore not deemed appropriate. The approved single source request is attached as an Annex to this Decision. 

6. Public Health Approach  

These proposals are consistent with a public health approach, by ensuring that children are informed of processes and their rights within police custody with the aim of improving trust and confidence in the long term. 

The cultural competency training to be delivered to YJMB members will increase board member’s understanding of physical violence in the context of structural violence and the internalised harms of systemic inequality. This work fits with the public health approach which recognises that violent incidents are not isolated and are often consequences of a range of factors including harmful experiences at a systemic and structural level.  

7. GDPR and Data Privacy 

1. MOPAC will adhere to the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and ensure that any organisations who are commissioned to do work with or on behalf of MOPAC are fully compliant with the policy and understand their GDPR responsibilities.   

8. Equality Comments  

1. MOPAC is required to comply with the public sector equality duty set out in section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010. This requires MOPAC to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations by reference to people with protected characteristics. The protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. 

2. The Disproportionality Challenge Fund is specifically designed to enable work tackle disproportionality within the Youth Justice System. Both of the proposed grant awards within this Decision will support this aim. 

9. Background/supporting papers 

• Appendix 1 PCD 938 – Disproportionality in Youth Justice Challenge Fund 

• Appendix 2 Single Source Request – Disproportionality Challenge Fund