Mayor's VAWG Fund Tranche 3 Developing Grassroots Provision

Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) is a key priority in the Mayor’s Policing and Crime Plan (2017-21). The refreshed London VAWG Strategy (2018-21) aims to reduce the prevalence of VAWG in London, tackling perpetrators and supporting victims and survivors.

This decision seeks to approve the allocation of £400,000 for tranche 3 of the Mayor’s VAWG Fund to award a contract of fund management to the London Community Foundation (LCF). LCF as the grant fund manager, will develop an effective bidding and grant management process to grass roots organisation to build capacity and capability to support survivors of VAWG at a community level.

The funding for these services comes from the additional £15 million announced by the Mayor on 27th February 2019 (/press-releases/mayoral/mayors-15m-boost-to-tackle-violence).

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to approve the award of a contract to the London Community Foundation worth up to £400,000 for the promotion, set-up and administration of the VAWG Grassroots Fund.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) is a key priority in the Mayor’s Police and Crime Plan (2017-21). The refreshed London VAWG Strategy (2018-21) aims to reduce the prevalence of VAWG in London, tackling perpetrators and supporting victims and survivors.

1.2. Following an increase in demand, coupled with cuts in central Government funding, the Mayor committed to invest an additional £15m of new money, across a three-year period, to improve and increase the support that is available to women and girls who are victims/survivors of VAWG. This additional funding was announced in February 2019 and the delivery and funding arrangements were detailed in PCD559 for delivery over a 36-month period, FY2019/20 – FY2021/22.

1.3. Funding is to be delivered in four tranches (listed below) and this decision relates to tranche 3:

1. Maintaining existing investment

2. Sustaining current innovation

3. Developing grassroots based provision

4. Managing an increase in demand

1.4. Up to £3.42m was approved in PCD 559 to be allocated across three financial years (2019/20 - 2021/22) for tranche 3. The purpose of this tranche is to establish a grants fund which seeks to strengthen and support grassroots organisations responding to VAWG in London. This is to be delivered through a fund management arrangement, which aims to empower and facilitate access to funding for smaller, grassroots organisations within the VAWG sector. £400,000 of the £3.42 million will support the effective allocation, management of the fund to grass roots organisations, whilst also developing support networks alongside a collaborative approach to a sustainable funding strategy.

1.5. The fund manager will be responsible for the £3.42 million fund; the release of the £3million to London Community Foundation will be dependent upon a further DMPC decision in 19/20 which will ratify their commissioning process, the effective allocation of the funding to grass roots organisation enabling the award of the grants.

1.6. The Mayor’s VAWG Fund is intended to be transformative intending to strengthen and develop the sustainability of grassroots providers. Research that MOPAC commissioned to explore the current landscape suggests that grassroots providers can find it difficult to access funding from statutory commissioners, and often require support to ensure effective performance management, evaluation and networking with similar organisations.

1.7. MOPAC has recognised key attributes that distinguish grassroots organisations, and acknowledges their specific needs, which have informed the decision to employ this commissioning arrangement. MOPAC also acknowledges and understands that a crucial element of supporting and strengthening grassroots organisations is effective engagement that recognises the value and expertise of this sector. Therefore, MOPAC is seeking to embed this into the fund management arrangement, allowing enough time for positive relationships to be developed by the fund manager with organisations, and to ensure they provide sufficient support to providers through the application process and their management of the grants, and that smaller, grassroots organisations are not disadvantaged by the bidding process and fund requirements.

1.8. Therefore, the remit of the fund manager will need to go beyond receiving a management fee purely for administering grants and contract management responsibilities. It will be incumbent upon them to:

• employ a flexible approach in terms of time and method to engage in order to build trust and allow enough time for small organisations for whom resource and capacity is often strained to limits;

• provide support to enable organisations to access the competitive-based grants process, including capacity building support and providing guidance throughout the process;

• facilitate networking opportunities to support the aims and vision of MOPAC in supporting specialist services to ethically collaborate and create sustainable, equitable partnerships that benefit providers and service users;

• produce a prospectus which supports the competitive grants-based approach informed by the evidence base provided by MOPAC and existing knowledge of gaps in provision and challenges faced by grassroots providers; and

• foster the additional capacity of providers in securing additional funding from external sources to support their long-term sustainability.

2. Issues for Consideration

2.1. The specification for organisations to tender for the fund manager contract to administer the VAWG Grassroots Fund was published with a submission deadline of 4th October 2019. This was managed through TfL’s e-tendering portal.

2.2. An open and transparent commissioning approach has been followed, in line with MOPAC’s Contract Regulations and TfL Procurement Strategy.

2.3. The fund manager will be required to develop the Fund prospectus for publication in November 2019. Funded projects are expected to be awarded by February 2020 for delivery over a 24-month period.

2.4. A high-level indicative timeline for the delivery of this programme is set out in the table below:

2.5. It is expected that the winning provider will receive quarterly payments in arrears, with up to 10% of Year 1 contract value available as a start payment to support mobilisation activities. The contract includes provision to ‘claw back’ monies if MOPAC finds any breach and/or failure to deliver on the KPIs set out in the contract, and in line with its terms.

Assurance regarding fund management arrangements

2.6. MOPAC has put in place mechanisms, and provisions within the contract, to ensure that the London Community Foundation provide suitable and appropriate assurance to MOPAC regarding its effective and robust grant management arrangements. MOPAC has identified predetermined criteria which will need to be met prior to any grant funds being transferred to the provider.

2.7. All final decision-making regarding recommendations to award individual grant awards will be retained by MOPAC.

3. Financial Comments

3.1 This decision seeks approval to award £400,000 to London Community Foundation to undertake the grant management, and organisational support required for the effective commissioning of grass roots organisations to support survivors of VAWG.

3.2 Up to £3.42m was approved in PCD 559 to be allocated across three financial years (2019/20 - 2021/22) for tranche 3.

4. Legal Comments

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

• award of MOPAC contracts with a total value of £500k or above (section 4.15);

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

4.2. Further DMPC Decisions will be submitted regarding the award of any contracts and grants for tranches 2 to 4 of Mayor’s VAWG Fund.

4.3. 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 appointment of a fund manager to support the development of grassroots provision has been subject to an open and competitive process.

5.2. Professional and technical advice has been sought from TfL procurement colleagues in relation to the commissioning approach which has been followed to be enable the appointment of a provider, in order to ensure the process followed was fully compliant with the Public Contract Regulations (PCR) 2015.

6. Public Health Approach

6.1. MOPAC will work alongside the VRU to ensure that public health principles to tackling violence are enshrined in the commissioning of these grass roots services, via the grant fund management arrangement. MOPAC and the VRU have agreed a joint approach to developing and supporting this programme of work, so that the opportunities to work through these services to reduce violence are fully realised.

6.2. In particular, the VRU will be fully engaged in the development of the funding prospectus, supporting MOPAC and the London Community Foundation in its development and reach to London key communities and organisations. Throughout the duration of the programme of work, MOPAC and the VRU will work together to understand the impact of these additional community based VAWG services, with a view to ensuring a clear understanding of impact and longer-term sustainability.

7. GDPR and Data Privacy

7.1. The providers are not being commissioned to process any personally identifiable information. If over the course of the delivery, it appears necessary for the provider to process personally identifiable information then MOPAC’s GDPR Project Manager will be consulted and a Data Protection Impact Assessment will be completed.

8. Equality Comments

8.1. MOPAC is required to comply with the public-sector equality duty set out in section 149(2) of the Equality Act 2010. This requires MOPAC to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation; 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. Equality and diversity have been expressly explored through research and consultation with recommendations directly informing the focus on intersectionality and marginalised women and girls in this context. An equalities impact assessment will be conducted by the Provider to appraise any potential impacts of recommendations on marginalised groups and those with specific protected characteristics. This EQIA will be fully considered as part of the decision making on grant allocation.

8.3. This programme will include end of year report and findings to guide future on provision of support which will be provided in accordance with need with protected characteristics in mind.

9. Background/supporting papers

9.1. PCD559