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The Lighthouse (Child House) Department for Education Funding

Key information

Reference code: PCD 800

Date signed:

Decision by: Sophie Linden, Deputy Mayor, Policing and Crime

Executive summary

The Department for Education has awarded MOPAC £260,000 funding in 2020/21 from the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme for The Lighthouse. This decision seeks approval to:

• Accept this funding and sets out how this funding will be allocated for the delivery of: i) a schools Child Sexual Abuse awareness training and support programme, ii) enhancements to the evaluation of The Lighthouse; and iii) the continuation of Social Care Liaison Officers working within The Lighthouse.

• To use £106,656.37 from approved 2019/20 £2m Mayoral funding to supplement total programme staff cost of £170,752.

Recommendation

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Accept the funding award from the Department for Education of £260,000 in 2020/21.

2. Approve the allocation of £149,300 from the Department of Education funding to University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for a Child Sexual Abuse awareness and training programme in schools in 2020/21.

3. Approve the allocation of £41,804.37 from the Department for Education funding to the University of Bedfordshire for The Lighthouse service user and counterfactual evaluation enhancements in 2020/21.

4. Approve the allocation of £4,800 from the Department for Education funding to RedQuadrant for The Lighthouse economic evaluation enhancements in 2020/21.

5. Approve the allocation of £64,095.63 from the Department for Education funding to Camden Council for the Social Care Liaison Officers working within The Lighthouse.

6. Approve the contribution of £106,656.37 from approved MOPAC Mayoral funding towards the Social Care Liaison Officer posts (in addition to the Department for Education funding) to enable these posts to be fully funded for a full 12 months between October 2020 and September 2021.

Non-confidential facts and advice to the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC)

1. Introduction and background

1.1. MOPAC and NHS England (London Region) have previously secured funding from the Home Office and the Department for Education (DfE) to pilot the ‘Child House’ model in London, a first for the UK. Both MOPAC and NHSE (London Region) are also contributing funding for the pilot. This is also a commitment within the Police and Crime Plan 2017- 2021.

1.2. The Child House, known as The Lighthouse, is located in Camden and serves the North Central sector in London providing services to children and young people who reside in five London boroughs (Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington). The Lighthouse is based on a model of international best practice, bringing together medical, investigative and therapeutic services ‘under one roof’, alongside support for child victims to progress more rapidly through the criminal justice and court process. It provides support to children and young people who have been sexually abused or exploited, as well as providing support to their families or carers.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The Lighthouse opened in October 2018. Funding was agreed for the pilot for two years until September 2020. MOPAC and NHS England (London Region) have recently agreed to co-fund the service for a further 12 months, until September 2021. This extension will allow The Lighthouse to continue to deliver the vital service it provides to vulnerable children and young people. The 12 month extension will also provide further time for MOPAC and partners to look for a longer term sustainable funding solution for the service.

2.2. The DfE has awarded MOPAC £260,000 transitional funding in 2020/21 from the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme. The funding has been awarded for the following areas of work in relation to The Lighthouse:

• A schools Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) awareness training and support programme in North Central London to be delivered by University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (The Lighthouse lead provider). This will comprise of i) delivery of training for primary (year 6), secondary schools and colleges – 85 training sessions; and packages of support for schools and teachers when individual children and young people are affected by CSA – up to 30 children or young people. To maximise the opportunities for the schools CSA programme and reflecting the uncertain nature of when all schools will return due to Covid-19 this programme will run for the duration of the 2020/21 school year until July 2021 (which has been agreed with DfE). Planning work will begin in July 2020 with delivery to commence in October 2020 until July 2021. In the event that social distancing is still place in September this work will be delivered virtually instead.

• Continuation of the two Social Care Liaison Officers embedded within The Lighthouse (employed by Camden Council). These posts were funded by the original DfE funding and so this brings some continuity from the previous funding round. The posts have proved invaluable to date at being embedded within the service. MOPAC funding will also be used to contribute towards these posts. The posts were previously funded until September 2020 and so this funding will ensure these posts can continue beyond that date.

• Enhancements to the ongoing evaluation of The Lighthouse. This includes enhancements to service user and counter factual data comparator to be conducted by The University of Bedfordshire. This research will ascertain the views of a sample of service users as to their experiences of The Lighthouse; including what worked well and what they think could be improved. It will then also share the identified benefits of The Lighthouse approach with a separate cohort of young people (with no engagement with The Lighthouse) and ascertain their perspective on what difference such an approach might make to other young people. Additionally, RedQuadrant will refresh the economic evaluation modelling of The Lighthouse which they originally developed to include the latest service data and revisit their original modelling and underpinning research assumptions.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. This Decision seeks approval to accept a funding award of £260,000 in 2020/21 from DfE. It also requests approval of £106,656.37 contribution from approved 2019/20 Mayoral funding (of £2m), to meet the Lighthouse budget gap on staff costs.

3.2. The DfE grant will be claimed quarterly in arrears from Q2, through a Grant Agreement with DfE and in line with the activities detailed in section 2.2 profiled as follows:

Activity

DfE funding

CSA Schools Programme (UCLH)

£149,300.00

Social Care Liaison Officers (Camden Council)

£64,095.63

Evaluation (University of Bedfordshire)

£41,804.37

Evaluation (RedQuadrant)

£4,800.00

Total

£260,000.00

3.3. The Social Care Liaison Officer posts are already fully funded until September 2020. In DMPC Decision PCD 735 it was agreed The Lighthouse service would be extended for a further 12 months from October 2020 until September 2021.

3.4. In line with this Decision the Social Care Liaison Officer posts will be extended by 12 months to September 2021, this takes payment period beyond the DfE 2020/21 funding duration.

3.5. The total cost of two Social Care Liaison Officer posts (spanning two financial years), is £170,752, of which £64,095.63 is confirmed within the DfE grant in 2020/21.

3.6. Additional budget of £106,656.37 required, is made up of £21,280.37 in 2020/21 and £85,376 in 2021/22.

3.7. This will be met from the approved £2m MOPAC funding awarded under DMPC Decision PCD 735 of which £1,026,735 is already committed.

4.1. MOPAC’s powers in relation to commissioning are set out in Section 143 (1) (b) of the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014, which provides an express 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”.

4.2. In line with section 5 of MOPAC’s Scheme of Consent and Delegation, the DMPC has authority for the approval of bids for grant funding made and all offers made of grant funding; and/or where appropriate a strategy for grant giving. 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 all bids for grant funding.

4.3. 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 contract exemptions for £100,000 or above.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. The providers for the work set out in 2.2 will be appointed by direct awards, with the rationale set out below:

• School CSA programme – this will be awarded as a Grant to University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in their role as lead provider of The Lighthouse. Part of this work will enable the service to build stronger links with local schools. Only the current Lighthouse provider can do this work.

• Social Care Liaison Officers – this will be awarded as an existing Grant extension to Camden Council who have employed the Social Care Liaison Officers as the host organisation on behalf of The Lighthouse since 2018/19.

• Evaluation enhancement (economic evaluation modelling refresh) – this will be awarded as a contract to RedQuadrant. RedQuadrant were previously contracted to develop the economic evaluation model for The Lighthouse evaluation. This will be an extension of the previous economic modelling they exclusively developed for The Lighthouse evaluation. RedQuadrant is uniquely qualified due to their specialist experience in CSA, quantitative research and economic modelling. Another provider would need to develop their own original modelling, duplicating work completed by RedQuadrant previously and therefore costing more money and expanding the scope of the work.

• Evaluation enhancement (service user and counterfactual data capture) – this will be awarded as a contract to the University of Bedfordshire. The University of Bedfordshire is uniquely qualified to deliver this work because of their expertise in the area of CSA, their experience in undertaking qualitative work with children and young people who have been the victims of CSA/CSE and the level of vulnerability of the young people being interviewed as well as securing the ethical approval for such research. Specifically, the University of Bedfordshire established ‘The International centre researching child sexual exploitation, violence and trafficking’ in 2006 and is seen as a centre of excellence nationally in this field. The University already has established working links with The Lighthouse. Selecting another provider would be a risk as they will not have the same level of proven expertise, and won’t have an existing working relationship with The Lighthouse or a detailed understanding of the services it provides.

5.2. Each element will be monitored monthly to ensure delivery against the outcomes set out in the DfE funding award. This will be in a form of written updates, contract meetings and updates through the Lighthouse Programme Oversight and Sustianability Board. Evidence of delivery will also be presented back to the DfE for their own oversight of the funding.

6. Public Health Approach

6.1. This decision does not sit within the Violence Reduction Unit’s public health approach to reducing violence as it relates to MOPAC’s statutory responsibility for commissioning support services for victims of child sexual abuse.

7. GDPR and Data Privacy

7.1. 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.

7.2. A Data Protection Impact Assessment has been completed for the service as well as for the evaluation to ensure that the service and evaluation are fully compliant with the requirements of the GDPR. These DPIAs are reviewed annually.

8. Equality Comments

8.1. 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. The service enables a more tailored approach and greater level of accessibility to services for victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation. Links have been made between the Lighthouse and other MOPAC commissioned services such as the Children and Young Person’s Havens, to ensure that victims are well supported and referred into the most appropriate services.

8.3. This decision supports the provision of services and interventions for this extremely vulnerable group of victims.

9. Background/supporting papers

PCD 735 2020 – The Lighthouse (Child House) Service Extension and Case Management System Development

Signed decision document

PCD 800 The Lighthouse (Child House) Department for Education Funding

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