MoJ Emergency Funding DA and SV Support Services

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced £25 million in emergency funding to be made available for Domestic Abuse (DA) and Sexual Violence (SV) Support Services; £20 million of which is to be disbursed through Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and a further £5 million is being made available to recipients of the National Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund (NRSASF). £3 million of the £20 million for PCCs is ringfenced for organisations in London who deliver DA and SV services. There are no ring-fenced amounts for regions under the NRSASF pot of funding.

MOPAC has publicised this funding opportunity and invited proposals from organisations which provide tailored support to victims of DA or SV who have experienced increased demand and increased costs because of the COVID-19 related lockdown or need to increase their capacity in the coming months and throughout the recovery period as the lockdown restrictions ease.

MOPAC has undertaken an assessment of the proposals submitted by organisations and made a recommendation to the Deputy Mayor on which proposals comply with the MoJ funding parameters and will have the greatest impact. This decision seeks the approval to submit these proposals to the MoJ for allocation of funds and to put in place the necessary grant agreements or contract variations to enable the disbursement of funds.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. approve the submission of MOPAC’s bid for funding under the two MoJ funding pots; and

2. approve the award of grant funding to the relevant organisations should MOPAC’s bid be successful.

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

1. Introduction and background

1.1. On 2nd May the Government announced £76M of extra funding to support victims and survivors of domestic abuse (DA), sexual violence (SV), vulnerable children and their families, as well as victims of modern slavery, during the COVID-19 emergency pandemic. On 19th May, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) launched a process to distribute £20M of the £76M through Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and a further £5m to recipients of funding from the National Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund (NRSASF). £3 million of the £20 million for PCCs is ringfenced for organisations in London who deliver DA and SV services. There are no ring-fenced amounts for regions under the NRSASF pot of funding.

1.2. To be eligible for the £20M PCC funding pot, organisations must be a registered charity, a charitable incorporated organisation, or a social enterprise, including companies limited by guarantee and community interest companies. They must provide a tailored support services which have the purpose of helping victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence to cope with the impacts of crime, and, as far as possible, recover from the harm they have experienced. To be eligible for NRSASF pot, organisations need to be established recipients under that Fund.

1.3. The MoJ COVID-19 extraordinary funding is for costs incurred from 24 March 2020 to 31 October 2020 to meet the additional costs registered charities or social enterprises have incurred or will incur whilst adapting their services during the pandemic, and to cope with demand increases resulting from it, during this time period. Further information on the parameters set by the MoJ on this funding opportunity can be found online here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-funding-for-domestic-abuse-and-sex…. There will also be additional requirements set out in the grant agreement between the MoJ and MOPAC, conditions of which must be adhered to when allocating funds.

1.4. The £3M being made available to support services in London is ring-fenced for the following:

• £1.5M for DA services already commissioned by MOPAC, half of which will be used to uplift existing services

• £750K for DA services not currently commissioned by MOPAC

• £750K for SV services including services both currently commissioned and not currently commissioned by MOPAC

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. For the £3M ring-fenced for London, MOPAC widely advertised this funding opportunity as a result received a total 73 funding proposals from 70 different providers valuing over £4M. Following an assessment process, 24 bids were rejected in full, 16 had part of their funding requests approved, and a further 33 were approved in full. The reason some proposals were rejected in full is because the service, provider or proposal did not demonstrate a specialist DA or SV service, or because bids were for ineligible costs or costs for things funded through other government support schemes such as furlough. Similarly, the reason why some proposals were only partly funded is because some the costs claimed were not eligible expenditure under this fund or were above what is reasonable for the relevant cost item (e.g. IT and office equipment).

2.2. The total funding request MOPAC is recommending be submitted to the MoJ is valued at £2,998,511. Once MOPAC receives a grant agreement from the MoJ confirming the funding allocations, up to 49 new grant agreements or variations will need to be drafted and new payment arrangements set up. The final funding amounts and number of new grant agreements will be confirmed once the MoJ has approved MOPAC’s submission.

2.3. MOPAC ran an open and transparent process in allocating this funding which has attracted successful bids from many grassroots organisations and small specialist organisations that support groups with protected characteristics. More than half of the successful applicants to this MoJ funding opportunity are providers that MOPAC has no existing relationship with or only an indirect funding relationship via the London Crime Prevention Fund, Victims Small Grants Fund, or as part of larger partnerships that MOPAC commissions directly. This is in line with Government’s intentions for this grant funding and will support MOPAC to amplify the impact of the VAWG Grassroots Fund and Victims Small Grants Fund which are due to come online later this year.

2.4. The DMPC is asked to approve both the proposals selected for submission to the MoJ, following an internal assessment process, and the award of grants, or issuing of grant and contract variations to those organisations should MOPAC’s bid to the MoJ be successful.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. MOPAC intends to bid for £2,998,511 from the £20M PCC funding, and has also submitted a bid totalling £177,346 to the £5M National Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund on behalf of the relevant partners. These total £3,175,857.

3.2. This funding is in addition to funding already within the MOPAC budget in 20/21.

3.3. The funding is only for use in 20/21, it cannot be used over multiple years.

3.4. MOPAC is unable to claim back the costs associated with administering this funding from this funding source.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. This decision is in line with the MOPAC’s Scheme of Consent and Delegation, in which paragraph 4.8 provides the DMPC with delegated authority to approve bids for grant funding made and all offers made of grant funding; and/or where appropriate a strategy for grant giving.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. Wherever possible, existing contracts and grants will be varied to incorporate this additional funding and where this is not possible then new grant agreements using MOPAC’s standard term and conditions will be deployed. MOPAC will incorporate the appropriate terms and conditions from the Grant Agreement between MOPAC and MoJ into the agreement and variations with the recipients of funding to ensure money is spent in compliance with these terms.

6. Public Health Approach

6.1. Not applicable.

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.

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. As part of a need’s assessment for Covid-19 related extraordinary funding has identified/will be asked to identify if they support victims with protected characteristics.