PCD 1602 YEF Fund-uplift for efficacy

PCD 1602 YEF Fund-uplift for efficacy

Since April 2022, the London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) have received funding from the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) for the delivery of the Your Choice programme. Your Choice provides high intensity CBT interventions to young people who have been assessed as vulnerable to violence and exploitation.  

In August 2023, The YEF announced that the programme had met the criteria to progress into a full randomised control trial (RCT). The RCT is a gold-standard evaluation and will enable the VRU to strengthen our understanding of the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions for children and young people at risk of harm. 30 local authorities will participate in this final phase of the programme.  

This decision seeks permission to accept an uplift from the YEF by £100,000 for the delivery of the final phase of the programme and vary a grant agreement held with London Councils for the co-ordination of the Your Choice programme between August 2023 and March 2025. The VRU will also utilise funding from the YEF grant towards internal management costs. 

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:  

1. Accept a grant uplift from the Youth Endowment Fund for the delivery of Your Choice, at the amount of £100,000.  

2. Approve a variation to the grant held between the VRU and London Councils, the cost of the variation is £537,442.19 and brings the total value of the grant to £1,121,702.19. This variation will cover financial years 23/24 and 24/25 and is within the Youth Endowment grant. 

3. Approve use of the Your Choice programme budget towards VRU management costs for the period of April 2024 to March 2025, up to £100,000. 

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

1. Introduction and background  

1. The Your Choice programme provides training to local authority youth workers (e.g., social workers, youth justice workers, teachers) in a range of CBT tools and techniques, enabling them to work intensively with young people towards goals that hold meaning and value to them and support positive behavioural activation. The programme is aimed at young people (11-17) who have been assessed by multi-agency panels as medium/ high risk of harm and reaches children at risk of violence who typically are less likely to access CAMHS in clinical settings. 

2. From April 2022- March 2023 32 local authorities participated in the ‘pilot phase’ of Your Choice. The pilot assessed the feasibility of a full randomised control trial, including whether local authorities had sufficient demand across youth service teams, whether boroughs could consistency adhere to randomisation and data collection requirements.  

3. In August 2023, the Youth Endowment Fund announced that the programme had met the conditions to progress into a full randomised control trial. 30 London boroughs will participate in this phase and will collectively support over 1500 young people. The full RCT will run from August 2023 to December 2024. 

4. Since April 2022, the VRU have funded The London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA) (hosted by London Councils) to provide project management, clinical oversight and a dedicated data team to support the evaluation of the programme. LIIA have also developed an online hub for boroughs to submit RCT data. LIIA are critical in ensuring local authorities are participating in the programme and adhering to the complex requirements of the RCT whilst upholding ethical standards. 

2. Issues for consideration 

1. In recognition of the complexity of the programme and significant in-kind contributions made by London Councils and the VRU, the YEF have uplifted the VRU grant by £100,000. Bringing the total budget for the RCT phase to £3,639,975.  

2. The VRU currently have a grant agreement with London Councils until July 2024. This decision will extend the grant agreement by 8 months to March 2025, to fully cover the RCT phase and 3 months post-RCT. The demands on boroughs during January- March 2025 will be significant and this variation will ensure that boroughs are supported in finalising their contributions to the RCT and the programme has clinical oversight during this period. 

3. Since April 2022, the VRU have not recouped funding for internal management costs. This decision will ensure that the final phase of the programme has dedicated VRU officer time to support delivery of a successful RCT across London boroughs and consider sustainability post December 2024. 

4. The requirements arising from the randomized control methodology and staffing required to co-ordinate the programme has been far greater than expected. The uplift and extension to London Councils will keep the programme viable at current delivery levels and ensure LIIA are supporting the programme throughout the duration of the RCT, and for a period post-RCT to support wind down of the programme. 

3. Financial Comments  

1. From April 2022 to March 2025, the VRU will receive a grant of £6,654,966 for the delivery of the Your Choice programme. The final RCT phase of the grant is £3,694,975, including the £100,000 uplift from which this decision relates to.  

2. The grant agreement for London Councils has been previously agreed via PCD 1149, PCD 1407 and PCD 1473.  

3. The total value of the London Councils grants including this variation will be;  

22/23: £258,607 

23/24: £389,326.51 

24/25: £473,768.68 

Total: £1,121,702.19 

4. The uplift to London Council’s grant is as follows and is all within the allocated grant of £3,697,975: 

23/24: +£145,086.51 

24/25: +£392,355.68 

Total: £537,442.19  

4. Legal Comments  

1. Under MOPAC’s Scheme of Delegation, the award of individual contracts of £500,000 and above is reserved to the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime. This includes the responsibility for signing the contractual agreements. 

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

3. Officers can confirm that the DMPC has the legal authority to agree this decision.  

5. Commercial Issues  

1. Uplift from YEF- As this is a grant and not a contract the Public Contract Regulations 2015 does not apply. The VRU will continue to provide quarterly monitoring reports with updates on the project status to the Youth Endowment Fund. The general terms and conditions within the Grant Agreement remains the same. 

2. London Councils Grant Variation- London Councils will continue to support the delivery of Your Choice and the additional funding is based on the same rates agreed at the start of the original grant agreement which provides value for money. 

6. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. As this is an extension to an existing programme, there are no changes to GDPR implications 

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. 

8. Background/supporting papers 

1. The outcome of the pilot phase of the Your Choice  programme is available here;  YEF-Your-Choice-Protocol-FINAL.pdf (youthendowmentfund.org.uk)