18 month extension for the delivery of Pan London Housing Reciprocal

This Decision seeks to approve an eighteen-month extension of the current grant agreement and approach for the Pan London Housing (PLHR), Reciprocal delivered by Safer London.

The Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 2018-2021 makes a commitment for ‘the Pan-London Housing Reciprocal to continue to look to raise awareness of its services and bring in additional Housing Associations’.

This has been delivered through the PLHR, operated by Safer London to coordinate the collaboration of local authorities and housing providers in London to improve and enhance housing pathways for survivors of VAWG and other serious violence.

This work was originally approved under PCD143, from December 2016 to July 2017 and initially extended until 31st December 2017 in PCD212. PCD 480 approved a fifteen-month extension until March 2020 based on developing the service offer and included an option to extend this grant agreement for an eighteen-month period until September 2021.

Extending Safer London’s current delivery agreement for an additional eighteen months at £255,000 provides assurance that existing levels of quality service will be maintained, particularly critical for the vulnerable service users accessing the service.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to extend the current grant agreement to Safer London for the delivery of the Pan-London Housing Reciprocal, at £255,000 for a further eighteen months.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. The Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 2018-2021 makes a commitment for

‘the Pan-London Housing Reciprocal to continue to look to raise awareness of its services and bring in additional Housing Associations’.

This has been achieved through the PLHR, operated by Safer London which coordinates the collaboration of local authorities and housing providers across London to improve and enhance housing pathways for survivors of VAWG and other serious violence.

This model is supported by an MoU formulated in partnership with London Housing Directors and VAWG forums.

1.2. This work was originally approved under PCD143, from December 2016 to July 2017 and initially extended until 31st December 2017 in PCD212. The current grant agreement approving extension based on further development of the Pan-London Housing Reciprocal was approved in 2019 for an eighteen -month period until March 2020 with a further option to extend.

1.3. The Service has brought in additional Housing Associations including the G15 (fifteen largest housing associations in UK) to a total of 76 housing providers to date who are responsible for managing well over 1 million properties in London alone.

1.4. The Service is for survivors who hold or are listed as dependents on a social housing tenancy. It represents a critical housing option as it ensures settled long-term accommodation, 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.

1.5. The impacts of insecure housing are well known and far-reaching. Poor recovery from the original trauma can leave survivors vulnerable to further exploitation and abuse. Children can be uprooted multiple times which affects their schooling and social outcomes. Survivors are further isolated and unable to find work, continue with their own education, thrust into financial instability and forced reliance on welfare benefits. These impacts disproportionately affect minoritised groups and those who face multiple disadvantages such as mental health issues, substance misuse and single-parent households.

1.6. Women and families fleeing violence and abuse should not be faced with having to choose between their tenancy, which represents a secure long-term home and their safety.

1.7. The Pan-London Housing Reciprocal has now been included in both the Mayor’s VAWG and Housing Strategies as a key housing pathway.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. Extending Safer London’s delivery agreement for an additional eighteen months provides assurance that existing levels of quality service will be maintained, particularly critical for the vulnerable service users accessing the service.

2.2. This would also allow the established and reliable service provided by Safer London to continue to build on the learning, developments arising from policy and needs of service users which they are best placed to collate to inform future improvements/changes to the Service including potential scalability, whilst providing consistency.

2.3. This extension would afford an opportunity to safely and responsibly explore options for service development/upscale and how to navigate the more systemic issues such as social housing pressures in the capital. It would allow SaferLondon to properly assess the benefits and impacts of the Scheme’s expansion for other cohorts such as care leavers and female offenders. This would include an appraisal of where short-term improvements can be made such as communication and awareness within/across housing departments; and attitude change campaign to improve the reception for particular cohorts such as those fleeing gang violence. This would be built into a feasibility study undertaken by Safer London to explore potential to upscale/extend the service to other cohorts including victims of modern slavery.

2.4. This stability would also allow for services commissioned under the Mayor’s £15m VAWG Fund and the recently introduced Female Offending Blueprint to become embedded so the intersecting needs of these cohorts alongside the PLHR can be evaluated and built into any future Service extension/scalability.

2.5. The current Grant Agreement for the PLHR set out a number of deliverables based on learning from the earlier agreement including:

• Developing existing work around the Mayor’s Move On programme, from refuge provision, as well as widening for those that are not in refuges and/or ‘hidden homeless’;

• Working with MOPAC, London Councils and the GLA to progress Housing and Refuge solutions with the voluntary sector;

• Developing work with female offenders and potentially, care leavers;

• Exploring options for witnesses of violence and application of the scheme, particularly where engagement with the scheme will increase safety of the witness(es) assisting any criminal justice process

2.6. The PLHR has successfully implemented these and further achieved;

• Securing match funding;

• Over 200 adults and children have been successfully moved away from violence and abuse and retained their tenancies; including disabled survivors and single-mother households;

• Successfully supported GLA Housing & Land to widen the Mayor’s Move On programme to include survivors who are facing homelessness due to VAWG;

• Included as a delivery partner in Government funded ‘Whole Housing’ project to share the PLHR model as best practice across the U.K;

2.7. The Service continues to receive the most referrals from those fleeing domestic abuse (58%), which reflects the wider increases in domestic abuse offences and need for specialist support. Additionally, the extended Service has received;

• 30% of all referrals were fleeing more than one form of violence including sexual violence;

• 25% of all referrals fleeing gang-related violence; the second-highest category;

• Referrals for hate crime related violence have increased slightly

• 59% of all referrals in Year 2 of delivery had an additional need identified such as disability;

• In Year 2 of delivery, 35% of all referrals have a mental health need, with 38% for domestic abuse referrals.

2.8. Safer London’s Year Two report on the PLHR found that it takes on average two months for survivors to move through the scheme. This is dependent on various factors including; number of rooms required, floor preference and type of violence fleeing. However, this is considerably shorter than local authority housing options including bi-lateral agreements, which suggest for a family-sized home, this can range from over 10 years to 9 months if the applicant is assessed as in ‘priority need’, which is not currently guaranteed for those fleeing serious violence including DA. The implications of this are significant, between 2017 and 2018, of 139 women killed by men, 76% were killed by a man they knew - either an abusive partner or family member and of this, 59% were killed in their own home.

2.9. The PLHR is well received by all boroughs in London with Safer London securing buy-in from all 32 London boroughs and over 1,500 housing professionals benefiting from the training and awareness elements of the scheme.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The funding for sustaining the Pan London Housing Reciprocal for an eighteen-month period at a cost of £255,000 is confirmed within MOPAC core budget.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. In line with section 4 of MOPAC’s Scheme of Consent and Delegation, the DMPC has authority for the:

• approval of the strategy for the award of individual grants and the award of all individual grants (section 4.8).

4.2. In line with section 5.22 of MOPAC’s Scheme of Delegation, the Chief Executive Officer has authority for the finalisation of planning and contractual/grant arrangements, including relevant terms and the signing of contracts and grant agreements.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. The recommendation made in this report follows the principal requirements as documented in the MOPAC Contract Regulations and authorisation requirement as in the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation which authorises the Director for CJC to award the contract to Safer London for the sum of £225,000 for the Pan-London Housing Reciprocal.

5.2. The recommendation to award a further direct grant to Safer London is commercially acceptable as they are the only organisation who can currently deliver the Scheme. Safer London have secured match funding to continue and expand the Scheme based on our contribution which also supports the justification for awarding a direct grant.

5.3. If the decision is not to approve funding, it will have a negative impact on MOPAC achieving the Mayor’s objectives and sustaining this critical service for vulnerable victims of crime. To mitigate this risk, it is recommended to allocate funding as outlined in this paper.

6. Public Health Approach

6.1. This Grant Award is informed by the Mayor’s public health approach to violence reduction and therefore part of MOPAC’s contribution to overall efforts led by the Violence Reduction Unit.

6.2. VAWG is a significant public health issue, costing the health care system alone, an estimated £1.3 billion per year. Domestic Abuse has significant and enduring impacts on individual’s physical health and mental wellbeing.

7. GDPR and Data Privacy

7.1. The Pan London Housing Reciprocal uses personally identifiable data of members of the public. GDPR issues are identified and mitigations will be put in place through a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) to be completed by the provider(s), who will be the data controller(s) for the programme.

7.2. These requirements will be reflected in the standard GPDR compliance clauses contained within all contracts/agreements for this programme.

8. Equality Comments

8.1. The Equality Act 2010 puts a responsibility on public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and promote equality of opportunity.

8.2. 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.

8.3. Domestic Abuse is a form of violence against women and girls. It is prolific across the U.K. and London with an estimated 4.2% of men and 7.9 % of women reporting domestic abuse in the UK during 2018. Women are more likely to be victims with those aged 16 – 24 more likely to be victimised, rising significantly to 1 in 3 for women with a disability. Women from BME backgrounds continue to be disproportionality represented in domestic abuse and related victimisation figures .

8.4. MOPAC is clear that provider is required to deliver the service in line with MOPAC’s equalities duties and this is reflected in the standard equalities’ clauses within the grant agreement/contract, as well as MOPAC’s monitoring framework of the service for its duration.

9. Background/supporting papers

9.1. PCD 480