PCD 1276 Disproportionality Challenge Fund Grant Award to Boroughs.

PCD 1276 Disproportionality Challenge Fund Grant Award to Boroughs.

The Youth Justice Ethnic Disproportionality Challenge Fund was established to support the delivery of the Action Plan to Tackle Disproportionality in Youth Justice. A total of £500,000 was made available as a fund to tackle systemic issues contributing to disproportionality in the youth justice system at a local level. Youth Justice Management Boards and Youth Justice Services in the 10 London boroughs identified as having the highest need were invited to bid into the fund.  

Bid evaluation was completed in partnership with the Youth Justice Board (YJB) and London Councils. The London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) have also been sighted on the successful bids. 

This decision is required to approve the award of grant funding to the three successful bidders. The grants will be for 12-months delivery and the funding allocation is as follows: 

• £149,255 to the London Borough of Brent. 

• £251,185 to the London Borough of Islington (in partnership with Camden, Hackney and Haringey). 

• £99,560 to the London Borough of Newham. 

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

• Approve the award of a maximum of £149,255 in grant funding to the London Borough of Brent for 12-months delivery of a project to tackle local causes of disproportionality in youth justice. 

• Approve the award of a maximum of £251,185 in grant funding to the London Borough of Islington, in partnership with Camden, Hackney and Haringey for 12-months delivery of a project to tackle local causes of disproportionality in youth justice. 

• Approve the award of a maximum of £99,560 in grant funding to the London Borough of Newham for 12-months delivery of a project to tackle local causes of disproportionality in youth justice. 

• Delegate responsibility for the finalisation of grant agreements to the Chief Financial Officer. 

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

1. Introduction and background  

1. The Tackling Ethnic Disproportionality in Youth Justice Action Plan was launched in February 2021 bringing together partners from across the criminal justice system to agree on a set of actions aimed at tackling drivers of ethnic disproportionality in youth justice. 

2. The Disproportionality in Youth Justice Challenge Fund was established to support the specific commitments in the plan as well as to develop and trial innovative approaches for tackling disproportionality in youth justice.  

3. PCD 938 approved a budget of £700,000 for the fund. £200,000 of this will go towards projects to progress specific commitments in the action plan. £500,000 was made available as a fund to tackle issues contributing to disproportionality in the youth justice system at a local level. Youth Justice Management Boards and Youth Justice Services in areas identified as having a high need, in terms of disproportionality, were invited to bid into the fund. 

4. A shortlist of boroughs was agreed by MOPAC, Youth Justice Board (YJB) and London Councils based on YJB disparity data. The London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) was also consulted on borough choice. MOPAC Evidence and Insight calculated an index score for each borough, taking into account the actual offending population (black children), the black disparity, black service users per 1,000 population (10-17) and % of all children cautioned or sentenced who are black. Although the primary focus of this shortlisting was on disproportionality for black children, those boroughs with a high level of disparity across multiple ethnicities were also considered. The top 10 boroughs based on these various indices of disparity have been invited to bid into the fund. 

2. Issues for consideration 

1. As part of the procurement process, the boroughs completed a self-assessment of issues contributing to disproportionality in the local YJS cohort. Each project is designed to specifically tackle these local drivers of disproportionality. 

2. The fund encourages innovative practice. Collaborative approaches with local statutory partners and/or voluntary and community sector organisations are required. All funded projects are also required to engage young people in the development of the project either through consultation, co-design or co-production. The development of the challenge fund projects will therefore contribute to building local partnerships and fostering collaborative work towards shared outcomes aimed at tackling local disproportionality.   

3. The funding criteria required bids to demonstrate how the work will contribute to sustained systems change either by piloting a new approach or by using the fund to implement a change that would then be sustained through other funding.  

4. Each of the projects will gather data on outputs and outcomes which will be collated by MOPAC Evidence and Insight into a results analysis. This data will contribute to further understanding of the issues contributing to ethnic disproportionality in youth justice in London as well as ways to tackle those issues. The results and best practice learning will be shared with partners both within London and nationally. A Learning and Development Group of the boroughs receiving funding will also be set up to give a platform for collaborative work between the project leads. 

5. The overarching aim of all of the work of the Action Plan and Challenge Fund is to reduce the overrepresentation of children from ethnic minorities in the Youth Justice System. However, due to the numerous factors which drive disproportionality the prospectus specified a list of high level aims that outcomes of each of the projects needed to sit under. The high level aims of the fund are: 

• Reduced reoffending and/or gravity of reoffending of children from over-represented ethnic minorities in the local YJS cohort 

• Improved experience of children from over-represented ethnic minorities in the local YJS cohort. This could include children’s experiences of services, support, assessment, interventions or trust in the Youth Justice System. 

• Increasing appropriate use of diversion and OOCD for children from over-represented ethnic minorities in the local YJS cohort 

• Improved engagement from children from over-represented ethnic minorities in the local YJS cohort 

• Reduced exploitation and increased protection from vulnerability for children from overrepresented ethnic minorities in the local YJS cohort 

• Improved desistance measures of children from over-represented ethnic minorities in the local YJS cohort 

• Improved services for children from over-represented ethnic minorities in the local YJS cohort. This should include quality, quantity and range of services 

• Improved provision for constructive resettlement of children from over-represented ethnic minorities in the local YJS cohort. This should include quality, quantity and range of services. 

6. A summary of each of the projects is included below: 

Islington, Camden, Hackney and Haringey  

• An intensive leadership mentoring programme and research analysis for minority ethnic young people involved in the YJS at all stages across the four boroughs.  

• The formal partnership for the project includes the four boroughs, Wipers PLC (social enterprise which specialises in working with vulnerable and disadvantaged young people) and the University of Essex (academic partner)  

• This project includes co-production with the children at its core. The project include intensive leadership focused mentoring and a range of education, training and employment opportunities. Young people will also have the opportunity to co-produce the research alongside academics as part of their leadership development.  

• The outcomes of this project sit under the high levels aims of reduced reoffending of black and mixed heritage children in the YJS cohort as well as improved experience and services for children from over-represented ethnic minorities. 

Newham   

• The core programme will involve young people from over-represented ethnic minorities who are at risk or already involved in the YJS receiving core interventions which provide a safe space to explore racial trauma as well as fostering empowerment.    

• Newham partnered with Rights and Equalities in Newham (REIN) on this project. REIN and other voluntary and community sector partners will add value to the core approach through facilitation of bespoke projects supporting young black people to remain engaged with the core programme and to access additional support and interventions. 

• The partnership will use an ‘open book’ approach to project management and the plan is to also involve a group of service users in co-design. 

• The outcomes of this project sit under the high levels aims of reduced reoffending of children from over-represented ethnic minorities in the YJS cohort as well as improved services for children from over-represented ethnic minorities. 

Brent  

• Brent partnered with the Young Brent Foundation (YBF) on this project. The project will include cultural competency training from the YBF for professionals working with young people in Brent. The aim is that this training will facilitate systemic change amongst organisations working with children in Brent. 

• Children from over-represented ethnic minorities already on the YJS cohort will be offered tailored enrichment activities in Family Wellbeing Centres such as music creation and film making. 

• The project will also include targeted workshops in schools and diversionary interventions delivered in Family Wellbeing Centres for children from over-represented ethnic minorities at identified as being at risk of offending.  

• Children will be engaged to co-design the enrichment and diversionary activities. 

• The outcomes of this project sit under the high level aims of increasing appropriate use of diversion for children from over-represented ethnic minorities as well as improved experience of children from over-represented ethnic minorities in the local YJS cohort. 

3. Financial Comments  

1. The total budget requirement for this work totals £500,000.  The programme will be funded from within the Disproportionality Challenge Fund budget. The budget was committed in PCD 938. 

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 awards 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. Legal advice is not required for the award of the grants and there are no additional legal implications.  

5. Commercial Issues  

1. As committed to in PCD 938, the MOPAC Disproportionality Challenge Fund is a £700,000 fund which supports the Youth Justice Ethnic Disproportionality Action Plan. £500,000 has been made available as a fund for Youth Justice Services in areas of high need to bid in to.  

2. 10 boroughs were invited to bid into the fund and bids were evaluated as part of a competitive process by representatives of MOPAC, London Councils and the Youth Justice Board. As part of the bidding process, bidders were required to specify what they would do with partial funding, to enable decisions to be made on the division of funding. 

3. Following bid evaluation and moderation, three bids met the minimum threshold to receive funding. Two bids scored joint highest and will be awarded the full funding requested. The third successful bid will be awarded 50% of the requested funding. The procurement process adhered to the principles of the GLA Responsible Procurement Policy. 

4. The funding will be awarded through grant agreements with each of the successful bidders and managed through active grant monitoring and quarterly reporting. MOPAC makes no commitment to fund the organisations listed above until grant agreements have been signed by both Parties. These will include details of the performance monitoring, reporting and schedule of payments. The grant award process will be in compliance with MOPAC’s Contract Regulations and Scheme of Consent and Delegation.  

6. Public Health Approach 

The Violence Reduction Unit have been consulted at multiple stages in the process, including in the work to identify boroughs with high need to be invited to bid into the fund. The Violence Reduction Unit have also reviewed and fed back on the proposals by the successful bidders.   

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 funded projects will all aim specifically to tackle the overrepresentation of children from certain ethnic minorities in the local Youth Justice Service Cohort. An Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) will be completed for each of the funded projects to assess impact on all protected characteristics.  

9. Background/supporting papers 

0. Appendix 1 PCD 938 – Disproportionality in Youth Justice Challenge Fund