PCD 1438 Pan London Housing Reciprocal Extension and variation

PCD 1438 Pan London Housing Reciprocal Extension and variation

The Mayor has committed to continuing to make Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls a top priority during his Mayoralty. This includes supporting provision which enables survivors to access safe and secure accommodation when fleeing abuse and violence in London.  

This Decision follows PCD 1306 (12-month extension of the Pan London Housing Reciprocal Scheme at £170,000), and requests to allocate an additional £85,000 of funding from the Money MOPAC receive from the GLA to deliver the Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation programme, to expand the existing service to include managing the Mayor’s Housing Moves scheme on behalf of the GLA. This is to support an in-depth review of how the Scheme is working across the capital which is currently underway. It will also afford survivors of domestic abuse in London the opportunity to access alternative, long term housing pathways and support them to cope and recover from crime and trauma and/or reduce the risk of victimisation and exploitation.  

The total financial commitment is £85,000 in 2023/24. 

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve the request to allocate funding of up to a maximum of £85,000 from the funding MOPAC receive to deliver the DA SA programme, to the Mayor’s Housing Moves coordination. 

2. Approve the modification of the current Pan London Housing Reciprocal (PLHR) service arrangement for 2023/24 to include this additional Housing Moves element. 

3. Delegate authority to the MOPAC Chief Finance Officer to sign the applicable variations to the existing grant agreement to disburse this funding. 

4. To note the intention is to meet the cost through the initial allocation of funds made from the GLA, in the event there are insufficient funds the GLA have confirmed they will transfer the additional funds needed up to a maximum of £85,000. 

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

Introduction and background  

1. The Mayor has committed to continuing to make Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls a top priority during his Mayoralty. This is outlined in the Mayor’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girl’s Strategy and his London Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Strategy, setting out how the Mayor is building on his original investments, including the Pan London Housing Reciprocal (PLHR) and crisis accommodation response during the global Covid 19 pandemic, to implement new duties under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse in safe accommodation. 
2. This Decision follows PCD 1306 which approved the request to extend the Pan London Housing Reciprocal (PLHR), for a further 12 months to continue provision which enables survivors to access safe, settled accommodation when needing to flee domestic abuse and violence in their homes across the Capital. The request to extend the PLHR acknowledged the impact of the global Covid 19 pandemic which significantly impacted the delivery of a feasibility review which was scheduled to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the current delivery model to inform future commissioning decisions. A tender to appoint a consultant to conduct the review was successfully awarded in March 2023, approved through DD 26-2022 and work is underway. 

3. A decision to refocus the Mayor’s Housing Moves scheme was introduced 1 July 2022. This followed an independent review of the scheme which found a wide and increasing gap between the supply of properties and demand. This resulted in refocusing the scheme on some of London’s most vulnerable groups, including survivors of domestic abuse.  

4.  Both the PLHR and Housing Moves are open to survivors with a social housing tenancy and offer an alternative housing pathway, vital to enable survivors to cope and recover, particularly relevant in London where social housing is at a premium and survivors who lose their tenancies face insecure housing options such as the private rented sector, temporary accommodation or being pushed out of the capital.   

5. This decision requests to allocate up to £85,000 of monies received by MOPAC from the GLA to deliver the Part 4 duty of the DA Act 2021 to the PLHR, which will enable the current provider to effectively and safely deliver the responsibilities related to the Housing Moves scheme in one place. 

2. Issues for consideration  

1. Bringing the Mayor’s Housing Moves into the existing PLHR arrangement with Safer London ensures that the provider can manage referrals on behalf of the GLA, whilst continuing work to coordinate the PLHR. It recognises the similarity between the two schemes and will provide valuable data and insight into how each run which will feed into the feasibility review. It will also help to avoid confusion amongst partners and survivors about the two schemes and provides one point of contact which is supports accessibility and safeguarding.  

2. Incorporating the services will afford survivors of domestic abuse who hold a social housing tenancy in London an enhanced opportunity to access alternative, long term housing pathways and support them to cope and recover from crime and trauma and/or reduce the risk of victimisation and exploitation.  

3. It should be noted that, both the GLA who host Housing Moves and Safer London who are the current delivery partners for the PLHR agree with this approach. Extensive discussion has taken place between all partners to ensure the benefits are realised. 

4. This Decision supports the Casey Review recommendations around offering a new offer to women and children across London through expanding the capacity to co-ordinate community/multi-agency responses to VAWG and domestic abuse via the scheme. 

3. Financial Comments  

1. This decision requests approval to allocate up to £85,000 of funding to enable the coordination of the Mayor’s Housing Moves to be incorporated with the Pan London Housing Reciprocal scheme current agreement, as detailed in 1.5 for the period 2023/24.  

2. The funding for this comes from the Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation (DASA) programme and agreement from the GLA to cover associated costs is covered under MD2788.  

3. Funding for the 12-month PLHR extension costs £170,000 which includes £102,000 from the DASA programme, also covered under MD2788. The remaining £68,000 comes from the MOPAC PPAF budget.  

4. The total financial commitment for the PLHR agreement including this uplift is £255,000 in 2023/24.  

5. The intention is to meet the costs through the original allocation made by the GLA, in the event there are insufficient funds the GLA have confirmed they will transfer the additional funds needed to meet the cost of the Pan London Housing Reciprocal up to a maximum of £85,000. 

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 (1) 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. Section 143 (1) (b) of the Anti-Social, Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides for MOPAC 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.”   

3. There are further relevant powers set out in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 at sections 17(1) (a) to (c) which place MOPAC under a duty to exercise its functions with due regard to the likely effect of the exercise of those functions on, and the need to do all it can to prevent, crime and disorder (including anti-social and other behaviour adversely affecting the local environment), reoffending in its area, and the misuse of drugs, alcohol and other substances in its area. The proposed arrangements are consistent with MOPAC’s duties in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.   

4. 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.  

5. 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 the award of all individual grants whether to secure or contribute to securing crime reduction in London or for other purposes.  

6. 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.   

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

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

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

5. Commercial Issues  

1. The modification request to the grant agreement will comply with the MOPAC Scheme of Consent and Delegation.  

6. 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. 

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. As highlighted in Baroness Louise Casey’s review standards of behaviour and internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), women and girls have been left further behind due to various reasons such as the de-prioritisation and de-specialism of certain areas of public protection. This includes rape and serious sexual offences, crimes that disproportionality impact women and girls.  

3. MOPAC will ensure Equalities considerations form part of all work commissioned with this funding. As part of the quarterly performance monitoring of each service we collect demographics information, which helps us to understand who is accessing each service and how any barriers to accessing may be overcome. 

4. Given the findings of institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia in the Casey review there should be enhanced assurance that the recommendations incorporate actions to address this. 

8. Background/supporting papers 

• Appendix 1 MD2788 
• Appendix 2 PCD1306 
• Appendix 3 DD 26-2022