PCD 1794 GPS Tagging Lead Practitioner Funding

This decision seeks agreement to provide funding to His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) for the post of a GPS Lead Practitioner to work as part of the MOPAC project team leading the implementation of the GPS tagging programme.  

The GPS Lead Practitioner plays an important role in linking the management of the GPS programme with case advice to practitioners, quality assurance of the programme and data collection to support contract management and evaluation. This post has been filled via a joint recruitment process with HMPPS. 

This funding will be up to £45,000 for the period July 2024 to June 2025 and will be provided via grant agreement. 

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve the funding of up to £45,000 for the post of GPS Lead Practitioner. 

2. Approve the grant funding of this post to HMPPS for up to 12 months until June 2025  

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

1. Introduction and background 

1. MOPAC has been testing GPS tagging as a part of its response to reoffending and violence since 2016 and since 2019 has been piloting this with prisoners being released back to London from prison. This programme, which currently includes both knife crime and stalking offences, is based on an established partnership between MOPAC, London Probation, London Prisons and the Metropolitan Police Service. To date over 2,300 people have been tagged on licence. 

2. In the delivery and evaluation of this programme, it is the operational partnership with London Probation that is most important in terms of identifying potentially eligible cases, guiding practitioners on how to make referrals and ensuring that cases are managed in the correct way and that accurate records are kept. 

2. Issues for consideration  

1. To support the operation of the GPS tagging programme, the GPS Lead Practitioner plays an important role in linking the policy, contract management and evaluation aspects of the project with the day to day interaction with Probation Practitioners. This role delivers training and briefings to practitioners, case consultations and is crucial in assuring the quality of referrals and case management and collecting the data used to monitor performance and for evaluation.  

2. This role requires a Probation Practitioner to be embedded within the MOPAC Criminal Justice team. This decision seeks agreement to fund this role via grant agreement with HMPPS between July 2024 and June 2025. 

3. Financial Comments  

1. The total cost of this role between July 2024 and June 2025 will be up to £45,000. This will be funded from the GPS tagging budget line. 

2. The spending across financial years will be: 

4. Legal Comments 

1. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 at sections 17(1) (a)to (c) places 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. These proposed funding arrangements are consistent with MOPAC’s duties in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. 

2. Section 143 (1) of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides an express power for MOPAC, as a local policing body, to provide or arrange for the provision of (a) services that in the opinion of the local policing body will secure, or contribute to securing, crime and disorder reduction in the body's area and (b) services “intended by the local policing body to help victims or witnesses of, or other persons affected by, offences and anti-social behaviour.” The work of the GPS Lead Practitioner post directly contributes to crime reduction in line with these powers. 

3. Paragraph  4.8  of  the  MOPAC  Scheme  of  Delegation  and  Consent  provides  that  the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has authority to approve offers made for grant funding.  

5. Commercial Issues 

1. Officers have ensured Financial Regulations and Contract Regulations are complied with.  

2. HMPPS are the only agency with statutory responsible for the delivery of probation in London and hence are the only agency with which this partnership arrangement and grant agreement can be entered into. 

3. The funding of this role will be carried out via grant agreement following standard MOPAC procedures for sign off. 

6. Public Health Approach  

1. The GPS programme has the support of the Violence Reduction Unit as it seeks to test whether GPS can improve the management of the risk posed by prisoners being released following a conviction for knife related or stalking offences. Thus far in the pilot, GPS has been used not only to increase deterrence, enforcement and restrictive conditions to protect known victims and the public, but also to support engagement with relevant services and to specifically challenge individuals to change their lifestyle to move away from behaviour associated with increased risk of violence. 

7. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. For the purposes of the GPS programme, MOPAC are a joint data controller with HMPPS.  

2. MOPAC is a joint controller for the purposes of delivering an evaluation of the programme. The evaluation will require access to personally identifiable information (PII). Data will include standard PII covered under Article 6, special category data covered under Article 9 and criminal conviction and/or offence data under Article 10.  

3. A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) has been produced to identify and minimise risks to data subjects. This document includes specific reference to the role played by the GPS Lead Practitioner to support proper data processing.  

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 GPS Lead Practitioner role is very important in the collection and monitoring of demographic and outcome data for the GPS programme to ensure that this data is of a high quality and provides the right basis for the analysis of the inclusion of protected characteristics. 

3. The are no specific equality implications from the extension of this role. 

9. Background/supporting papers 

None