Sexual Violence Support and ISVA funding

In January 2020, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) ran a national competition for Independent Sexual Violence Advocate (ISVA) funding with a pot of £1m per annum available. MOPAC submitted an expression of interest (EOI) to increase the ISVA provision in the London Survivors Gateway but was not successful in this round.

In May 2020 the MoJ announced they would be increasing this funding pot by £3m per annum and in June 2020 invited MOPAC to confirm whether the EOI originally submitted was still a valid proposal. It was made clear that an additional EOI or alternative submissions would not be considered.

MOPAC confirmed the EOI was still valid and on 8 July 2020 the MoJ advised MOPAC that they were successful for a proportionate value of the original EOI. The funding is available from 1 July 2020 to 31 March 2022.

This decision is to accept the award from the MoJ and to enable the commissioning of this funding to increase ISVA provision within the London Survivors Gateway as well as extend the current end date.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. accept the MoJ award of £536,000 (£216,000 in 2020/2021 and £320,000 in 2021/2022) to increase ISVA provision within the London Survivors Gateway;

2. extend the current grant period end date of the London Survivors Gateway to 31 March 2022;

3. approve the reprofiling and variation of the existing London Survivors Gateway grant agreement to include the additional ISVA provision; and

4. delegate the approval of detailed arrangements to enable the disbursement of these additional funds and grant variation to the Chief Finance Officer.

1. Introduction and background

London Survivors Gateway

1.1. In 2017 MOPAC were awarded funding over three financial years (Decision PCD291) through the Home Office VAWG transformation fund and Police Transformation Fund to support earlier intervention. Match funding was contributed by MOPAC and NHS England with the agreement to run until March 2020.

1.2. This funding enabled the London Survivors Gateway to be established to develop a new way for survivors of sexual violence to access support in terms of advocacy, counselling and wider advice across the services commissioned in the capital. The project is being evaluated by MOPAC’s Evidence and Insight Team which is using a logic model to assess the consistency of access. An interim report has recently been published with a final report due in the early Autumn 2020.

1.3. The London Survivors Gateway is a partnership arrangement between the four London Rape Crisis Centres, Survivors UK and Galop and is led by Women and Girls Network who manage the West London Rape Crisis Centre. The London Havens (SARC) are also affiliated with the project although they are not a delivery partner.

1.4. In October 2019, the DMPC approved the sustainment of the London Survivors Gateway (PCD639) from April 2020 to September 2021 through the Mayor’s VAWG Fund, a £15million investment in Violence and Girls (VAWG) support services.

1.5. In January 2020 MOPAC was invited, along with all other Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC), to submit an expression of interest (EOI) for the recruitment of additional Independent Sexual Violence Advocates (ISVA). There was £1m per annum of funding available. MOPAC submitted an expression of interest (EOI) to increase the ISVA provision in the London Survivors Gateway but were not successful in this round.

1.6. In May 2020 the MoJ announced they would be increasing the funding available for ISVAs by £3m per annum and in June 2020 invited MOPAC to confirm whether the EOI originally submitted was still a valid proposal. It was made clear that an additional EOI or alternative submissions would not be considered. MOPAC confirmed the EOI was still valid and on 8 July 2020 the MoJ advised MOPAC that they were successful for a proportionate value of the original EOI. The funding is available from 1 July 2020 to 31 March 2022.

1.7. Women and Girls Network, the lead provider of the London Survivors Gateway, were also successful in securing £417,707 of MoJ emergency funding for domestic abuse and sexual violence services in response to Covid-19 (PCD772). The funding is enabling the partnership to increase all elements of the project and its capacity to better respond to the changing needs and experiences of victim-survivors

1.8. MOPAC intends to reprofile the existing grant with Women and Girls Network, utilising the two additional funding streams, to enable the service to be extended by six months, to 31 March 2022, whilst also increasing overall capacity in each part of the service.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The project delivers initial and enhanced support to survivors of sexual violence through a pan London single point of contact approach. The project has two main delivery elements: a navigator led triage system that processes most of the rape and sexual abuse victim support referrals from the MPS as well as specialist ISVAs in each of the partner organisations who support people experiencing multiple disadvantage. The project also handles self and other agency referrals, although each partner maintains their own local referral arrangements.

2.2. The additionality provided by this funding will increase specialist ISVA provision in each of the partner organisations as well as bring in additional speciality to support victim-survivors with learning disabilities and the opportunity to develop provision to better support young black women who are disproportionality affected by sexual violence in London.

2.3. Utilising the MoJ ISVA award and reprofiling the Mayoral allocation and MoJ Covid-19 funding to extend the current grant agreement by six months period will ensure new staff are offered longer employment contracts which creates a more resilient workforce. Workforce development is also being addressed to ensure that people are brought into the sector as well as retained in the sector through career development pathways.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. This decision requests approval to accept additional MoJ ISVA funding of £536,000. It also seeks approval to reprofile the grant and vary the total awarded to London Survivors Gateway by £50,000. from £925,000 to £875,000.

3.2. The new MoJ funding award of £216,000 and £320,000 (in 20/21 and 21/22 respectively) is for the provision of six Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVA) within the Survivors Gateway until 31 March 2022.

3.3. This additional grant will uplift support funding for survivors of sexual violence and allow the grant funding to the London Survivors Gateway to be reprofiled beyond the existing project end date of September 2021 for a further six months to 31 March 2022, with a revised grant award of £1,828,707 as set out below.

3.4. The Mayoral approval of £925,000 will reduce by £50,000 due to the new MoJ funding.

3.5. The variation of £50,000 will be retained within the Mayor’s VAWG Fund Tranche 2 (Sustaining Key Innovations) allocation.

3.6 The grant award requests no match funding from MOPAC and there is also no indirect MOPAC service costs built into the above grant award profile.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. MOPAC’s general powers are set out in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (the 2011 Act). Section 3(6) of the 2011 Act provides that MOPAC must “secure the maintenance of the metropolitan police service and secure that the metropolitan police service is efficient and effective.” Under Schedule 3, paragraph 7 MOPAC has wide incidental powers to “do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive or incidental to, the exercise of the functions of the Office.” Paragraph 7(2) (a) provides that this includes entering into contracts and other agreements.

4.2. Section 143 (1) (b) of the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 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.”

4.3. The recommendations in this decision are in line with the legislation and MOPAC’s Scheme of Consent and Delegation. In line with section 4 of the Scheme, the DMPC has the authority for the:

• approval of business cases for revenue or capital expenditure of £500,000 or above (paragraph 4.8); and

• approval of unforeseen contract variations and extensions to contracts (paragraph 4.13).

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. The proposed grant variation is required to enable MOPAC to discharge duties associated with the provision of grant funding in relation to local commissioning of Victims’ Support Services. Funding has been awarded by the Ministry of Justice for the purposes set out above and must be prescribed accordingly and as per the successful bid that was submitted by MOPAC to the Ministry of Justice.

6. Public Health Approach

6.1. Grant award and variation 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.

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. MOPAC will collect data relating to service delivery to inform commissioning decisions and to monitor performance against grant expectations.

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.

9. Background/supporting papers

PCD 639

PCD 772