PCD 1235 - Acceptance of MOJ funding

PCD 1235 - Acceptance of MOJ funding 

MOPAC receives funding from the Ministry of Justice to partially pay for victim and witness support services MOPAC commissions in London. The Ministry of Justice has issued two grant agreements confirming MOPAC’s funding allocation for 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25. This decision seeks approval to accept the grant funding, sign the MoJ grant agreements, and manage the onward distribution of the funding to victim services. The total funding confirmed for 2022-23 is £21,033,663 and then £18,687,441 in both 2023-24 and 2024-25. This includes additional funding the Government announced in Spring 2022 for uplifts in domestic abuse (DA) and sexual violence (SV) provision (see PCD 1190). 

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:  

1. Accept the multi-year grant funding from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) for victim services for 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25.  

2. Delegate authority to the MOPAC Chief Finance Officer to sign the necessary grant agreements and monitoring returns to accept this funding from the MoJ.  

3. Approve the transfer of MoJ funding from MOPAC to a Fund Manager (see PCD 1196) to establish grant arrangements with some of the successful bidders. The total funding being transferred from the ringfenced pots include £1,482,332 in FY2022-23 and £1,536,986 in both FY2023-24 and FY2024-25. 

4. Delegate authority to the MOPAC Chief Finance Officer to sign the applicable variations to the existing contracts/grant agreements to disburse this funding, including organisations who were successful in obtaining funding through recent DA/SV MoJ funding pots (see PCD 1190). 

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

1. Introduction and background  

1. Since 2014, responsibility for regional commissioning of victim services has been devolved to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs). The funding to enable this comes from the Ministry of Justice's Victims Fund and Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund.   

2. This funding has traditionally been used to pay for core victims services including: the London Victim and Witness Service; Sexual Assault Referral Centre; Children’s and Young People’s Service; and Rape Crisis Centres. In addition, the Ministry of Justice has provided additional funding in recent years, including the recent DA/SV funding pots launched in Spring 2022 (PCD1190). The grant awards stemming from this additional funding have been incorporated into ringfenced elements of the MOPAC funding allocation from the Ministry of Justice, as set out in paragraph 1.3 below. 

3. In 2021/22, MOPAC’s funding allocation from the Ministry of Justice was £16,765,943. The following is a breakdown of MOPAC’s allocation for 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25: 

4. The funding amounts for the SV Local Commissioning Test for 2023/24 and 2024/25 have not been confirmed; however, the Ministry of Justice has committed to continuing this funding stream arrangement for the three-year grant period.  

5. The funding element attributed to Pre-Trial Support Services has not been confirmed beyond 2022/23. This will be subject to further discussions between MOPAC and the Ministry of Justice regarding the future of this devolved arrangement. These discussions are due to take place in late Summer, once the evaluation of the pre-trial element of the London Victim and Witness Service has been completed. 

6. To achieve the Government’s target of recruiting an additional 300 ISVAs or IDVAs by 2025, it is anticipated that further Government funding streams will come online in future years by varying these grant arrangements with PCCs. Accepting any additional funding, including any future allocations for the SV Local Commissioning Test and Pre-trail support services, will require a further Deputy Mayor decision.  

2. Issues for consideration 

1. MOPAC is required to sign two grant agreements to accept this funding which set out the conditions by which this funding is to be spent (including the respective ring-fenced amounts as above) and the reporting requirements. The grants do not require match funding from MOPAC. MOPAC will incorporate these requirements in the grant and contractual agreements for services that are funded from this source. 

2. The devolved funding for the pre-trial witness support service is incorporated into this grant. Any further devolution arrangements for victim services would be incorporated into this grant agreement following the necessary approvals. 

3. The reporting requirements for this funding include the submission of mid-year and end of year performance returns as well signing a statement confirming compliance with the terms and conditions of the funding. 

4. For the additional ring-fenced DA/SV funding elements, PCCs were required to run an open process and invite submissions from providers across London to support the completion of an assessment of need for domestic abuse (DA) and sexual violence (SV) support services in their local area. This was to support the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in deciding funding allocations across PCCs for the following three ring-fenced pots: ringfenced DA/SV funding; ringfenced funding for proportion of 700 ISVA/IDVAs; and ringfenced funding for proportion of additional 200 ISVA/IDVAs (see PCD 1190).  

5. In a change to their original process, in June 2022 the MoJ asked MOPAC to undertake an assessment of all the applications for ringfenced DA/SV funding it had supported within its needs assessment and make final decisions on allocating the £4,189,662.60 the MoJ had awarded to MOPAC out of this fund. MOPAC assessed all the relevant applications against a set scoring criteria and award recommendations were then reviewed and signed off by a panel.  

6. Please see here for a full list of all awards made from this additional MoJ funding. 

7. MOPAC has commissioned a Fund Manager (see PCD 1196) to support MOPAC in distributing the additional funding the MoJ announced in Spring 2022 which MOPAC bid for (see PCD 1190). This funding forms part of these ringfenced DA/SV pots. This decision requests approval to transfer the relevant proportion of this MoJ funding to MOPAC’s newly commissioned Fund Manager for onward distribution to the relevant service providers. The Fund Manager will then coordinate ongoing performance management and oversight of these grants until 2024-25 with the support of MOPAC. The total funding being transferred to the Fund Manager from the ringfenced pots is £1,482,332 in FY2022-23 and £1,536,986 in both FY2023-24 and FY2024-25. Approval for the management fee associated with this arrangement was granted in PCD 1196. 

8. The remainder of the MoJ funding will be distributed by MOPAC by varying existing contracts and grants, and commissioning new frontline victim support in London. This decision delegates authority to the Chief Finance Officer to sign variations for the applicable contracts/grant agreements to disburse the remainder of this funding to the relevant organisations. Any new commissioning projects that utilise this funding will require further decisions in line with the Scheme of Delegation. 

3. Financial Comments  

1. This decision requests authority to accept £58,417,686.12 in grant funding across three financial years, from 2022/23 to 2024/25, from the MoJ for the provision of victim services in London. The annual allocations and ring-fenced amounts are set out in paragraph 1.3 above. 

2. Approval is also being sought to transfer MoJ funding totalling £4,556,214 to establish grant arrangements with some of the successful bidders for the period 2022/23 to 2024/25. 

3. The total grant award will be recognised as part of Commissioning and Partnerships budget planning to support service development over the specified timeline confirmed by MoJ. 

4. It is noted the grant awards require no match funding from MOPAC. 

4. Legal Comments  

1. 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 offers of grant funding.  

2. Paragraph 4.6 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides the DMPC authority to delegate those functions which are reserved for the DMPC.  

3. These recommendations are in line with the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent. 

5. Commercial Issues 

1. All grants and contracts which utilise this funding will incorporate the relevant terms from the grant agreement between MOPAC and the Ministry of Justice to ensure compliance.  

2. All variations to existing grants and contracts will be made in line with MOPAC’s Contract Regulations and national procurement regulations. 

6. Public Health Approach 

1. The VRU will be consulted on services commissioned using this funding to ensure alignment with VRU activity and wider public health approach to tackling violence in London.  

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’s local needs assessment submission to the MoJ highlighted significant increases in demand for domestic abuse and/or sexual violence support services in London, in particular for those groups with protected characteristics and/or from minority groups.  

8.2. In assessing the applications received for this funding, MOPAC prioritised those services that provide specialist support to these groups and/or are delivered by ‘by and for’ organisations. 

9. Background/supporting papers 

PCD 1190 

PCD 1196