PCD 1431 Direct Award to fund a Hospital Based Youth Work in Northwick Park

PCD 1431 Direct Award to fund a Hospital Based Youth Work in Northwick Park

This Decision requests the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime approves a funding award of £96,000 to St Giles Trust to continue to deliver an in-hospital youth service at Northwick Park Hospital whilst Brent Council recommission the service.  

As part of a needs analysis on hospital-based youth work across London, completed by the VRU in July 2022, it was identified that Northwick Park was the fifth priority A&E site in London. St Giles Trust have delivered an in-hospital youth service at Northwick Park since July 2020.  

The direct award will ensure there is continuity of service for the young people presenting at Northwick Park Accident and Emergency with an injury caused by violence or exploitation so that they can continue to be supported by youth workers enabling them to recover.  

The funding award will ensure there is a seamless transition between St Giles Trust and the new provider of the service after Brent undertake the recommission.   

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Allocate £96,000 to St Giles Trust through a direct grant award for the financial year 2023/24. 

2. To approve the carry forward of £96,000 from 2022/23 to fund the grant award in 2023/24, noting this is subject to their being sufficient funds at year end. 

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

1. Introduction and background  

1. The hospital-based youth work programme sees clinically embedded youth workers engage with young people who have been impacted by violence or exploitation who present at Major Trauma Centres (MTCs) and Accident and Emergency (A&E). The work is done in the hospital immediately after the incident, which research has shown to be unique ‘teachable moment’. It is at this critical juncture that young people are often willing to look at making significant changes to their lives. 

2.  The Hospital Based Youth Work programme sits within the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) priority area focused on ‘Children & Young People (CYP): Reducing Harm & Exploitation’. This area is specifically focused on vulnerable CYP. The objective of our programmes in this space is to improve the identification of risks and to divert to the appropriate supports. Our programmes focus on identifying vulnerable young people at critical ‘teachable’ moments whether that be in custody suites, on the street or, in this case, in hospital following a violent incident. We also work across organisations and systems working with vulnerable CYP to build capacity to identify harmful behaviours early on and provide more effective support for this group. 

3.  Since May 2022, the VRU have been undertaking scoping work, working with stakeholders to understand the current delivery, funding landscape and updated picture of violence to determine how to best to utilise our investment to better support young people presenting at hospital sites in London. 

4. This work has included a refreshed need analysis in July 2022 analysing ISTV data to understand which hospital sites in London were determined to be priority sites based of assault, London Ambulance and Met Police data. 

5. The refreshed needs analysis identified Northwick Park as the fifth priority A&E site in London. St Giles Trust have delivered an in-hospital youth service at Northwick Park since July 2020.  

6. Since its inception in 2020, the youth work service embedded within Northwick Park A&E has supported over 130 young people aged 11-25 presenting at hospital in crisis. This includes 58 young people from Brent, 37 young people from Harrow and 17 young people from Hillingdon, 9 from Ealing and 4 form Lewisham. This service provides wrap around support for young people presenting at hospital with an injury caused by violence or exploitation and sees a trusted adult provide holistic support enabling the young person to recover.  

7. The in-hospital youth service at Northwick Park has been fully funded by Brent Local Authority (LA) since its inception in July 2020. Allocating funding towards this service was not included in the initial scope of the VRU and MOPAC’s investment for 23-25 due to Brent’s funding commitment going forward. Brent have applied to use their VRU LCPF funding for 23-25 to fund this programme.   

8.  In February 2023, it came to our intention that Brent LA would be undertaking a recommissioning exercise for the in-hospital youth service at Northwick Park. Due to internal procurement pressures at Brent LA, the new service provider will not be in place until December 2023.    

9. With the current funded service due to end on 31st March 2023, this leaves an 8-month funding gap between April 2023 and December 2023. 

10. The VRU propose to fund this 8-month gap in service to ensure continuity of service to allow Brent LA to undertake an open and competitive tender for the youth work service In line with procurement regulations. 

2. Issues for consideration  

1. The VRU have received a written commitment and confirmation from Brent LA that the procurement timeline will ensure the new provider is in place by December 2023 ensuring continuity of service with the VRU’s 8 month funding commitment.   

2. The VRU have requested monthly updates from Brent LA to ensure the procurement process is on track.   

3. The total funding over the 8 months is £96,000 in line with the costs of the current service provision. 

3. Financial Comments  

3.1 This decision seeks approval to allocate £96,000 to St Giles Trust through a direct grant award. There is no provision in the 2023/24 budget for this grant. As at Quarter Three the forecast underspend for VRU was £168,000, it is therefore proposed that the grant is funded from the forecasted 2022/23 VRU underspend, subject to the 2022/23 final VRU underspend being more than £96,000 and DMCP approval of the requested carry forward.  

3.2 In the event there are insufficient funds to carry forward to meet the cost of the grant this will create a budget pressure in 2023/24 which VRU will need to manage through existing resources.  

4. Legal Comments  

1. Section 143 (1) (b) of the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides an express power for MOPAC, as a local policing body, to provide or commission services “intended by the local policing body to help victims or witnesses of, or other persons affected by, offences and anti-social behaviour.” Section 143(3) specifically allows MOPAC to make grants in connection with such arrangements and any grant may be made subject to any conditions that MOPAC thinks appropriate. 

2. Under MOPAC’s Scheme of Delegation the strategy for the award of individual grants and/ or the award of all individual grants is reserved to the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime. This includes the responsibility for signing the grant agreements. 

3. Officers must ensure that the arrangements comply with the Financial Regulations and Contract Regulations 

4. Officers can confirm that the DMPC has the legal authority to agree this decision. A grant agreement will be signed by St Giles to ensure that they comply with MOPAC’s general Terms and Conditions 

5. Commercial Issues  

1. The total funding allocated to this service is £96,000 as this cost is based on the current provision the VRU are satisfied that the amount is what is required to continue to carry out the critical services required at Northwick Park Hospital. 

2. St Giles will be awarded this fund as a grant for the following reasons: 

1. The service is already being delivered in the hospital and the intention is to continue to deliver this service to this hospital whilst a procurement process is carried out. 

2. The VRU will receive no direct benefit as a result of the funding  

3.     MOPAC has power under the Section 143 (1) (b) of the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 (as illustrated in the legal comments) to make this grant award  

6. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. MOPAC and the VRU 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.   

7. 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 VRU are committed to promoting equality and participation in all their activities, whether this is related to the work we do with our external stakeholders or whether this is related to our responsibilities as an employer. As public authorities we are also required to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations when making decisions and developing policies. To do this, it is necessary to understand the potential impacts of the range of internal and external activities on different groups of people. 

8.      Public Health Approach  

8.1 London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) is taking a public health approach to violence reduction, that is contextual; looking  at the context  and influences that  impact on individuals at significant points in their life. We will support such approaches from our partner organisations to utilise this funding.