PCD 1460 Safe and Together Funding

PCD 1460 Safe and Together Funding

Safe & Together is a child-centred model that is based on the principle that children and young people are best served when we can work toward keeping them safe and together with the non-offending parent.

Safe & Together seeks to upskill Children’s Social Care, CAFCASS and police in holding perpetrators to account and challenging them to change their behaviour, as well as reducing risk to survivors and children through improved practices among professionals, enabling survivors to have confidence in professionals.

The Safe & Together approach was funded through Home Office funds from 20/21 to 22/23, delivering in six boroughs. The Safe & Together model is also being utilised in the Restart Pilot, which is being funded by MOPAC until 2025 and operating in five boroughs.

This Decision is seeking approval to apportion a maximum of £536,500 from CJS Perpetrator Fund and VAWG strategy uplift to extend the Safe & Together pilot for 2 years to sustain the delivery of outcomes in 6 boroughs, enable continued evaluation of the approach and to secure longer sustainability and expansion of the model in London.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:  

1. Approve the continuation of Safe & Together for two years to ensure sustained provision of the model.
2. Approve the allocation of £536,500 from CJS Perpetrator Funding and VAWG strategy uplift, to the London Borough of Waltham Forest, for delivery of Safe & Together.

Approve the carry forward of £250,000 from 2023/24 budgets to fund the costs in 2024/25.

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

1. Introduction and background

1. 1. Safe & Together is a child-centred model that is based on the principle that children and young people are best served when we can work toward keeping them safe and together with the non-offending parent.

1. 2. The model is a perpetrator focused, survivors’ strengths approach to working with domestic abuse cases. It aims to support staff across children’s services to make good decisions for children impacted by domestic abuse perpetrators. The Safe & Together model consists of a set of assumptions, principles, and critical components that when utilised in domestic abuse cases, help improve identification, assessment, documentation, case-planning and decision-making. 

1. 3. The model is then delivered through training and tools to multi agency practitioners and supporting professionals to ‘pivot to the perpetrator’ by partnering with the survivor and holding perpetrators accountable in domestic abuse cases. 

• 4. The Safe & Together model delivers on the follows outcomes:
• Perpetrators are held to account and challenged to change their behaviour
• Perpetrators are supported to understand, and are held accountable for, the multiple ways their pattern of behaviour negatively impacts child and family functioning, moving beyond an incident-led response. 
• Reduced risk to survivors, and children through improved practices among professionals, enabling survivors to have confidence in professionals.
• Increased practitioners’ and professionals’ confidence in engaging and intervening with perpetrators and holding them to account.
• Introduction of a systematic and required section on Children’s Services case management systems (CMS) to record engagement with perpetrators.

1. 5. Implementation of the Safe & Together approach commenced in Waltham Forest and Hackney in 2019 and MOPAC received Home Office funding from 20/21 to 22/23 to deliver the model in six boroughs (Waltham Forest, Hackney, Newham, Hammersmith and Fulham, Tower Hamlets and Barnet). The model is also used within the Restart programme which is piloted in 5 boroughs and funded by MOPAC until March 2025.

2. Issues for consideration

1. 1. This paper requests DMPC approval to provide funding of £286k in year one and £250k in year two for the continuation of the current Safe & Together model in six boroughs, led by the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The revenue will additionally finance the rollout of Safe & Together training and the instatement of a part-time implementation lead in each borough.

1. 2. As part of the Home Office’s DA perpetrator fund 2023 to 2025 a bid was submitted alongside Waltham Forest and Respect to deliver Safe & Together Pan London. This was for £1.95 million over two years and was unsuccessful.

1. 3. Due to the unsuccessful bid for Home Office funding, the Safe & Together provision is expected to end on 30^th June 2023, when the Local Authority funding is due to cease. Redundancy notices for the delivery staff are going out, with the retention of two roles to facilitate the Safe & Together aspect of the Restart pilot.

1. 4. This funding will ensure there is no gap in Safe & Together provision and will prevent unfunded pressures, such as the loss of Safe & Together infrastructure and jobs, enabling quick mobilisation if further funding is secured.

1. 5. The Mayor’s VAWG strategy seeks to prioritise early intervention for perpetrators whose behaviour may not yet meet criminal thresholds, and specifically highlights the commitment to Safe & Together: ‘MOPAC will continue to pilot early intervention projects in children’s social care, using the Safe & Together™ programme, which frames domestic abuse as a harmful parenting practice and seeks to enable social workers to focus on perpetrators’ behaviour.’

1. 6. Safe and Together approach is consistent and supportive in its principles with the recommendations in the Baroness Casey Review on a new offer for Children and Women.

3. Financial Comments

1. 1. The total budget requirement for this two-year extension totals a maximum of £536,500. This is a one-off sum from the 23/24 budget to span delivery for two years. The funding will be split across the two financial years as follows: £286,500 in 2023/24 and £250,000 in 2024/25.

1. 2. Boroughs have provisionally committed additional match funding of £330,000 over two years.

1. 3. MOPAC funding is broken down as such:

• Up to £300,000 been made available from CJS Perpetrator Fund 2023/24 budget
• £250,000 from the VAWG Strategy Uplift 2023/24 budget

3.4       Carry forward of £250,000 from the 2023/24 budget is required to meet the               costs of the extension in 2024/25.

4. Legal Comments

1. 1. There are 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.

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

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

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

1. 5. 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. 1. MOPAC will provide funding to the London Borough of Waltham Forest, quarterly in arrears, under Grant Agreement.
   2. There are no procurement issues with this decision, as all funding is provided through Grant Agreements. However, the London Borough of Waltham Forest will commission the programme in line with their own governance framework and regulations.
   3. MOPAC makes no commitment to fund the London Borough of Waltham Forest until a Grant Agreements has been signed by both parties. This will detail performance and payment schedules.
   4. The signing of the Grant Agreement will comply with the MOPAC Scheme of Consent and Delegation.

6. Public Health Approach

1. 1. 1. This piece of work has been informed by discussions and feedback from the Violence Reduction Unit, the Greater London Authority and the Mayor’s public health approach to Violent Against Women and Girls (VAWG). The Safe and Together model provides training and tools to multi-agency practitioners, supporting professionals to ‘pivot the perpetrator’ by partnering with the survivors and holding perpetrators accountable in domestic abuse cases.

7. GDPR and Data Privacy

1. 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. 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.

1. 2. This programme delivers interventions for perpetrators of domestic abuse (DA). DA is gendered, and disproportionately affects women and girls. This is not to say that victims of these crimes cannot be male however women are more likely to be victims of every type of DA including being three times more likely to be the victim of a domestic homicide.