PCD 1645 Victim Voice Forum

PCD 1645 Victim Voice Forum

The Casey Review highlighted significant issues with the service the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) provides to victims of crime. In response to the Casey Review, the MPS End to End Victim Care Improvement Programme needs to hear from individuals with lived experience to shape and review the content and priorities of the Programme. The MPS and MOPAC jointly established an initial Victim Voice Forum (VVF) in Summer 2023. The Forum has enabled volunteers with lived experience to shape the work of the MPS and MOPAC to improve the service and support that victims receive. Following the success of this initial VVF, MOPAC is now working with the MPS to establish VVFs for cohorts identified by Casey as having low trust in the MPS – Black communities, women and girls, people with disabilities, young people and LGBTQ+ people. 

The City of London have expressed an interest in sponsoring the forums; a partnership between MOPAC and City of London would prevent duplication of work and provide an opportunity to pool resources.  

MOPAC is, therefore, seeking to appoint an external partner to facilitate and expand its engagement activities with these cohorts. This decision is seeking authority to procure this external partner and commit funding up to £300,000 across financial years 2024/25 to 2027/28 for the initial contract period. Additional extensions of the contract may be invoked for up to two years, at a maximum of £100,000 per annum. To accommodate for any funds received from City of London or if a funding uplift is required to commence further consultation work with those with lived experience, the maximum budget for this contract will be advertised as £650,000. Any extensions or variations to this contract will require a further decision.  

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve the initiation of a procurement process to award a contract to a provider to facilitate consultation and engagement with individuals with lived experience to inform the MPS and MOPAC practice and services at a maximum potential cost of £650,000, including potential extensions and uplifts which will be subject to further decisions and additional funding being identified.  

2. Approve the allocation of up to a maximum total value of £300,000 across financial years 2024/25 to 2026/27 to the contractual arrangements resulting from this procurement process. The indicative initial annual value of the contract will be a maximum of £100,000 per annum for an initial period of 3 years, with possibility of extending the contract for up to 2 years. This will be funded from the Victims Care Hub 2023/24 budget. Funding of the programme in future years will need to be carried forward and will be subject to DMPC approval. 

3. Accept up to £25,000 per annum in funding from the City of London Corporation and for budgets to be updated accordingly. 

4. Approve the onward allocation of the City of London grant funding to the Victim Voice Forum facilitator, commissioned by MOPAC up to a maximum value of £25,000.   

5. Delegate authority to the MOPAC Chief Finance Officer to sign the necessary grant agreements to accept this funding from the City of London.  

6. Delegate approval to award the contract to the Director of Commissioning and Partnerships, as the Chair of MOPAC’s Procurement, Grants and Contracts Oversight Board. 

7. Note that any further contract extensions or uplift above the original value of £300,000 are subject to a further decision and additional funding being identified. 

8. Delegate authority for the finalisation and execution of the contracts to the Chief Financial Officer, in accordance with the general power of delegation in paragraphs 1.7 of the MOPAC Scheme of Consent and Delegation. 

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

1. Introduction and background 

1. The Casey Review has highlighted that trust needs to be rebuilt between the MPS and victims of crime. The Police and Crime Plan for London commits to increase public trust in the MPS and provide better support to victims. Engagement with individuals with lived experience like the Victim Voice Forum (VVF) enables the MPS and MOPAC to gain valuable insight and drive change.  

2. VVF feedback and findings have fed into the MPS End-to-End Victim Care Programme Board and informed MOPAC’s work. To build on this success, MOPAC and the MPS are committed to expanding the number of VVFs to focus on cohorts where trust in the MPS is low, as highlighted by the Casey Report. These groups include Black communities, people with disabilities, young people, LGBTQ+ and women and girls. 

3. The initial VVF has 12 volunteer victim participants, sourced through MOPAC’s victim service providers, the Independent Victims’ Commissioner for London, and the MPS Witness Care Units. MPS and MOPAC staff also attend and participate. The VVF meets every 6 weeks and has collaborated to develop its own agenda for discussion, through expert independent facilitation. Volunteer participants receive vouchers as an acknowledgement of the time and money they use to attend meetings. Trained Victim Support staff are on hand in the meetings to support participants if necessary.  

2. Issues for consideration  

1. The Forums directly address the Casey Review recommendation to rebuild trust with London’s communities to restore consent. Creating safe spaces for victims to feedback directly to the MPS and MOPAC will enable participants to see how their feedback is making change. The pilot has shown that this improves participant perceptions of the MPS and is meaningfully improving the MPS’ services to victims.  

2. Representatives from the MPS will attend the Forums in non-uniform to remove potential barriers, motivate participants to share their experience and assure attendees that the MPS are willing to listen and drive improvement.  

3. There will be five additional Forums to provide safe spaces for the cohorts that the Casey Review identified as having disproportionately low trust in the police (Black communities, women and girls, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ victims, and parents/guardians of young victims of crime). There will continue to be an ‘open forum’, which any victim of crime can attend.  

4. Commissioning an independent partner to facilitate discussion will ensure participants feel able to speak freely and can access support if required.  

5. There will be a call off arrangement for additional consultation to inform wider work, such as the Police and Crime Plan and the development of future strategies, such as that required by the Duty to Collaborate in the Victims and Prisoners Bill. 

6. City of London have a Policing Plan priority to ‘put victims at the heart of everything we do’; a partnership between MOPAC and the City of London would enable learning across both PCCs and provide value for money for Londoners.   

7. An estimated timetable for the procurement process is:  

3. Financial Comments  

1. The total budget committed by this decision is £300,000; this includes up to £100,000 per annum from 2024/25 to 2026/27. The programme will be funded from the 2023/24 Victims Care Hub budget. Possible extensions from 2027/28 – 2028/29 at £100,000 per annum and up to a 30% uplift have been included in the advertised tender value to enable additional work to be called off under this contract. Any extension or budget uplift beyond the initial £300,000 will require a further decision. 

2. The City of London are currently considering a commitment of up to £25,000 per annum for the full duration of the contract. A proportion of this, up to a maximum value of £25,000, will be allocated to the Victim Voice Forum facilitator, commissioned by MOPAC. 

3. The budget will need to be carried forward from 2023/24 to fund the programme in 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2026/27, subject to DMPC approval. 

4. Legal Comments  

4.1 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 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.  
4.2 Section 143(1) of the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides 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.” The provision of this service would be consistent with this power.  
4.3 The Mayor's Office for Policing Crime is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ("the Regulations"). All awards of public contracts for goods and/or services valued at £214,904 (including VAT) or above will be procured in accordance with the Regulations.  
4.4 Paragraph 4.13 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve all requests to go out to tender for contracts of £500,000 or above.   
4.5 The delegation of responsibility for the finalisation of contractual arrangements, including relevant terms and the signing of agreements, to the Chief Finance Officer is in accordance with the general power of delegation in paragraph 1.7 of the MOPAC Scheme of Consent and Delegation.  
4.6 Officers must ensure the Financial Regulations and Contract Regulations are complied with.  
4.7 Officers should ensure that contracts are put in place with and executed by MOPAC and the provider(s) before any commitment to fund is made.    

5. Commercial Issues  

5.1 This Decision requests approval to proceed to procurement for a provider to facilitate victim voice forum provision at a maximum value of up to £650k, over a three-year initial contract period with an option to extend for up to two years. 

5.2 This is an above-threshold contract, covered by Schedule 3 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. An open procedure, under the Light Touch Regime will be used.  

5.3 An option will be included in the procurement opportunity for the City of London to make use of any subsequent contract awarded.  
5.4 In accordance with 4.13 of the Scheme of Delegation, DMPC approval is required for procurement strategies and requests to go out tender for contracts of £500k or above. 

5.5 The actions proposed can be taken in compliance with procurement legislation and MOPAC’s Contract Regulations. 

6. Public Health Approach  

6.1 The Forums will work with several defined populations who have been victims of crime (Black communities, people with disabilities, young people, LGBTQ+ and violence against women and girls victims). Their experiences will be utilised by MPS and MOPAC to help drive improved outcomes for victims of crime.  

6.2 The length of the contract will enable MPS and MOPAC to have a continual feedback loop to these communities so that short and long-term changes can be reviewed.    

6.3 Participant experiences may highlight inequalities in levels of risk and the impact this has on their lives, which MPS and MOPAC can use to improve practice/services. 

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. 

8.2 MOPAC’s Public Attitude Survey has found that LGBT, Black and mixed ethnicity Londoners have a less positive attitude towards the police. Younger Londoners feel less well informed about local police activities than other groups. Confidence in the criminal justice system is lower among people of a mixed or white ethnicity, although Black, Asian and multi-ethnic groups face challenges around their treatment and outcomes within the criminal justice system and have the lowest rates of overall victim satisfaction. 

8.3 The Forum goal is to remove or minimise disadvantage suffered by the named cohorts when they have become victims of crime. By listening to their experiences through regular Forums, it will help the MPS and MOPAC to identify negative impact on these cohorts and will drive change in process to aid these groups to have a more positive experience.  

8.4 Participants involved in the Forum will see the changes they are making, which will help foster good relations between the MPS and these cohorts. This may increase participants likelihood to report crime in the future as they have direct experience of positive engagement with the MPS. 

9. Background/supporting papers 

N/A